My grandfather farmed near Luther, not far from Ames. My brothers and I enjoyed working on the farm during summers, walking beans and baling hay. Grandpa would laugh at our 1970s long hairstyles and would note that our bell-bottom jeans were probably going to be pretty heavy when the dew hit them. And that was if they didn’t get caught in machinery first. I’m not sure what he would have said if we showed up with tattoos, but Iowa State University now is looking at tattooing crops, not the people who plant them. The Plant Sciences Institute is looking into tattooing crops with graphene oxide, which would act as a sensor to monitor crops’ general thirstiness and to guide irrigation. DeltaFarmPress has the story.