My pandemic project ended up being more unconventional than most. (I tried sourdough at the beginning, but forgot the starter in the fridge until last week.) As an anti-factory-farming activist, I found myself drawn to alternative food sources. I began raising and processing rabbits for meat and fur. Rabbits are a rare meat here in […]
Iowa Agriculture
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Book Review: ‘Meatpacking America’ by Kristy Nabhan-Warren
In the popular imagination, the small-town Midwest exists in a state of fixed, unchanging idyll, in which people who have always lived there and always will pass on to their children the rural values and traditions they themselves inherited. For some, often on the political right, these values are hard work, temperance of spirit and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A lean guide to local meat
You don’t have to give up your favorite fleshy entrees in order to eat ethically — but it won’t be as easy as swinging by Walmart for a $6 pound of ground beef, either. Cutting out the middlemen in the food supply chain takes some legwork on the part of farmers and consumers, but has […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Remembering the Iowa Cow War, 90 years later
The War on Meat (2021 edition) may just be a Republican talking point, but 90 years ago, National Guard troops armed with literal rifles and bayonets were deployed against cattle farmers in eastern Iowa in what became known as the Iowa Cow War of 1931. This largely forgotten incident involved angry people rejecting science and […]
Posted inCommunity/News, Top Story
The ‘War on Meat’ isn’t real, but small Iowa farmers face an uphill battle against Big Ag
By Zoe Pharo and Paul Brennan For most Americans, the 2021 War on Meat was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment in conservative culture-war politics, the kind typically sparked by a red Starbucks cup or the marketing of a slightly more gender-neutral Barbie doll or Mr. Potato Head. By the time Fox News announced on April 23 that […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Federal judge rejects Iowa pork industry’s attempt to crush California law banning pork produced ‘in a cruel manner’
On Monday, a federal judge in Cedar Rapids dismissed a lawsuit from Iowa pork producers seeking to overturn a law in California that prohibits the sale of “the meat of a breeding pig, or the immediate offspring of a breeding pig, who was confined ‘in a cruel manner.’” Proposition 12, passed by California voters in […]
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Free speech v. industrial farms: Iowa’s ag gag laws go to federal court
The state government’s various attempts over the last nine years to shield industrial animal farms with an ag gag law were spotlighted in court Tuesday. The injunction preventing the first ag gag law, signed into law by Gov. Terry Branstad in 2012, from going into effect was partially upheld by a federal appeal court, while […]
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Iowa’s dirty water is getting worse
For five years, Sarah Prineas has been getting up before dawn and heading to the Beckwith Boathouse at the University of Iowa to meet other members of Hawkeye Community Rowing for practice. The rowing team practices four to five times a week on the Iowa River.
“It’s always beautiful in the morning,” Prineas said. “The river is calm, and the sun is coming up. On the banks of the river we see deer, all kinds of waterfowl and eagles. It’s really very peaceful and beautiful.”
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En Español: Campos de maíz
Es de noche y camino por el campo de Cathy y Ralph. Algo de luna se refleja en los silos, en las escaleras que suben a los techos, en el camión que lleva al maíz cuando ya está listo para ser vendido. Tras los silos, unos pinos hermosos y gigantes que Ralph me explica dañó […]
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A ballsy campaign ad put Joni Ernst on the map. It may be all she’s remembered for.
Six years ago, a little-known state senator introduced herself to Iowans statewide with the words, “I’m Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm.” The “Make ’em Squeal” ad helped plant an image of Ernst in the public’s mind as a plain-speaking farm girl who wanted to bring Iowa common sense to […]
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Federal judge issue injunction against Iowa’s new ‘ag gag’ law
Iowa won’t be able to enforce its new “ag gag” law, until a federal court rules on its constitutionality. Senior Judge James Gritzner of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, finding the public interest groups challenging the law were likely to succeed when the case is tried.
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Have fun and learn how to help an iconic butterfly at the Iowa City Monarch Festival
The fourth annual Iowa City Monarch Festival on Sunday is a celebration with a purpose. The two-hour event at the Iowa City Municipal Airport not only gives people a chance to enjoy monarch butterflies—as well as family-friendly crafts and snacks—but also learn what they can do to help the icon butterfly.
