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Dear Reader,
In 2020, I traveled to rural Iowa to report on the rapid expansion of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Many residents were concerned about pollution from the massive CAFOs cropping up alongside their homes and streams. But at the time they were a vocal minority, and some of them didn’t link political leadership to the problem.
That’s changing. This year was a bad one for nitrate levels in the state’s water. New reports on rising cancer rates have shaken residents. And broader attention is being paid to pesticide exposure.
As consequential midterm elections approach, the long-held status quo—where multinational agricultural corporations shape both how Iowa farms and how it governs—could shift.
This week, we’re reporting on that moment from two directions. Contributor Leah McBride Mensching delivers an on-the-ground report on agricultural water contamination and how it is driving voter sentiment and candidates’ positions. And I report on Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn’s past affiliations, including connections to the family behind Koch Industries, which are prompting skepticism about his promises to stand up to industry.
It’s going to be a wild election. One outcome could be that Lahn, a candidate calling out the “capture” of the Environmental Protection Agency’s pesticide process by industry lobbyists, could end up running the state with Mike Naig, a former pesticide industry lobbyist, as secretary of agriculture. Lahn has also been endorsed by the political wing of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, MAHA Action, adding national significance to that race.
Beyond Iowa, we’ve also got plenty of other important stories this week.
Staff Reporter Rebekah Alvey reports on the cyclospora outbreak and what it says about food safety and a new House Democrat investigation into the role of Taylor Farms. As a part of our First Person series, we meet sixth-generation Navajo (Diné) farmer Zachariah Ben, whose Bidii Baby Foods seeks to bring ancestral foods to infants.
And for our Farming 250 series, Video Reporter Vanessa Johnston has a dispatch from Wisconsin, where immigrant doulas are sourcing healthy produce for expectant mothers from local farmers, and we hear from Jamila Norman, an urban farmer tackling food deserts in Atlanta.
Finally, a bit of housekeeping. The Civil Eats team will take its annual publishing break next week, from August 3-7, allowing for some much-needed time off. We’ll be back Monday, August 10, with more reporting on all the food and farming stories we can find.
As we step away next week, it’s worth remembering what brings us back: readers like you. Independent, paywall-free reporting that answers to you rather than corporate interests is what Civil Eats membership makes possible. If this work matters to you, please consider becoming a member today—it will carry us to our return and well beyond. |
