It will take a lot to turn the massive ship of Big Agriculture around in Iowa, even if the benefits — from improved water quality to a more competitive food market — are many. It is important for those who […]
It’s probably not an accomplishment state officials will want to boast about, but Iowa out-performs the rest of the country when it comes to producing shit. That is, literal fecal waste. Chris Jones, a research engineer and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Iowa, IIHR, has done the math: Iowa, with a population of 3.2 million, produces more than twice the amount of fecal waste per square mile than California, which has almost 40 million people. […]
Iowa hit “peak pig” last month, according to figures just published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The state had 23.6 million pigs, an increase of 4 percent from 2017 and most ever recorded in any state. There are only 9.4 million pigs in North Carolina, the state that ranks second in swine. […]
Two thousand four hundred ninety-nine. That is the magic maximum number of hogs allowed to construct a new confined animal feeding operation (CAFO, or factory farm) in Iowa without notifying local or county officials or adhering to state government regulations. Only a cursory review and approval by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and filing a plan for manure management with the county auditor, are required. There are no minimum requirements for acreage or distance from residences, schools, parks and sources of water unless the CAFO contains 2,500 hogs or more. […]
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Rec'd 2023
