Two months after announcing his run for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Democrat Wade Dooley ended his campaign on Wednesday. “This is my first foray into statewide campaigning, and it’s been an eye-opener,” Dooley said in a written statement. “The amount of time, staff and money that it takes is truly daunting. And at this point […]
Iowa Agriculture
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Border collies tap into the herding mentality at national cattledog competition
Standing on a hill overlooking a green pasture, Rachel Ritland and I watched a group of cattle at the bottom of the valley. I pulled my jacket tight against the frigid wind, but Ritland, co-director of 3rd District of the United States Border Collie Handlers’ Association (USBCHA), didn’t seem to mind. She focused intently on […]
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‘The American people must have more than a choice between evils’: Iowan Henry A. Wallace, FDR’s vice president, was an ag innovator and fierce antifascist
“The Cornfield Prophet” Henry A . Wallace, known for his pioneering work in agriculture, was a progressive statesman who championed the “Century of the Common Man.” A heartbeat away from the presidency for four years as FDR’s vice president, his supporters viewed him as the torchbearer for the New Deal, while opponents dismissed him as […]
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Factory farms in Iowa generate 110 billion pounds of manure per year. No one tracks where it’s going.
More than a thousand hogs grow fat in the enclosed shed-like structures on Gene Tinker’s farm in northeast Iowa, while a few hundred cattle pace in open feedlots. His farm is one of nearly 8,000 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa. But the 64-year-old is not an average Iowa pork producer. Less than a […]
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Why do we live in a ‘shithole’? A new docuseries on Iowa’s 50-year decline seeks answers
“I keep asking, why is it we’re living in a shithole?” Art Cullen says in What’s Eating Iowa?, his new documentary series launched Tuesday. The first episode, “Water,” is now available on YouTube. It’s the damaged state of Iowa’s water, and the damage that water is doing, that prompts Cullen’s question. Cullen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning […]
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‘We know enough’: Researchers call for Iowa ag regulations to protect public health
Researchers and public health advocates said Wednesday that water quality and land use continue to be modifiable elements impacting public health, and in particular cancer, in Iowa. The experts spoke to a crowded conference room in the Olmsted Center at Drake University during the 2025 Iowa Nature Summit that touched on policies, practices and programs […]
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Chris Jones, water quality advocate and author, considers run for Iowa Ag Secretary: ‘We need to rethink agriculture’
Chris Jones, author of The Swine Republic and one of Iowa’s leading water quality advocates, has created an exploratory committee as he considers a run for Secretary of Agriculture next year. “I think we need to rethink agriculture,” Jones told journalist Nina B. Elkadi. “Nobody’s happy. So why are we going to keep doing what […]
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Iowa food companies routinely violate water pollution permits and rarely face penalties
Deb El Food Products LLC is one of hundreds of Iowa-based companies cited for violating its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in 2025. Of these, 38 were food or agriculture companies. After months of dumping wastewater that exceeded the toxic compound limits set forth in the permit, the liquid egg company was cited […]
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‘We’re on a knife’s edge’: Art Cullen chides Reynolds’ meanness, Big Ag’s death grip on Iowa land and livelihoods
“When I was a kid in the 1960s, you could drive from Carroll to Storm Lake, and see cattle lining green hills the entire way,” Art Cullen said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Now it’s all row crops, and cattle in feedlots. It’s a different situation. Those green hills are plowed up.” That transformation, the economic […]
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This corn fungus, dreaded by most Iowa farmers, is a south-of-the-border delicacy
Father and daughter returned to their field to assess the tumors’ growth. The father stepped forward into the sea of shimmering florets, plucked an ear of corn from its stalk and squatted to face his daughter. Look, he said. It’s ready. The lumps had multiplied, infecting the kernels. Some had taken the shape of a […]
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Hundreds gather for presentation on Polk County water quality report; researchers, crowd call for regulation
More than 500 individuals gathered Monday to hear what comes next following the release of an in-depth water quality report commissioned by Polk County. Another 500 watched online to hear years’ worth of research on water pollutants and key steps forward at the individual, watershed and state levels. One speaker said it was the first […]
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Pesticide manufacturer Bayer spent more than $200K lobbying in Iowa
Bayer, the biotech company and manufacturer of Roundup, has substantially increased its spending on lobbying in Iowa since the introduction of a pesticide labeling bill in 2024. In 2025, according to client reports published by the state, Bayer paid lobbyists $123,250. Reports for 2024 show $86,099 spent. Between 2021 and 2023, years before the pesticide […]
