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 […]
Water Quality
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Seize the means of water testing with a free kit from Nitrate Watch
I wasn’t great at science in high school. Following a set of basic lab protocols was somehow harder for me than memorizing the entirety of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. I scored even worse on the science portion of the ACT than the math portion, which is saying something. That said, I love […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
With state funding cut off, the Izaak Walton League is fundraising to keep an Iowa water quality monitoring program afloat
The Izaak Walton League of America’s Iowa division has started a grassroots campaign to raise funds for a water quality monitoring program, formerly funded by the state, at the University of Iowa. The Iowa Water Quality Information System, or IWQIS, gives real-time measures of pH, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, discharge rates and temperature in streams across […]
Posted inComics
Futile Wrath — September 2025
This comic was originally published in Little Village’s September 2025 issue.
Posted inCommunity/News
EPA withdraws proposed rule for stricter water pollution guidelines at meat packing plants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a January 2024 proposed rule that would have reduced the discharge of nutrients and pollutants from meat packing plants and slaughterhouses. The agency said it chose to withdraw the rules in an effort to prioritize the nation’s food supply and to keep food prices down. The proposed rules […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa groups tell congressional delegation bill would ‘gut’ Clean Water Act
Environmental and community groups from Iowa sent a letter Thursday to the state’s congressional delegation urging them to oppose a House bill that would “gut critical clean water protections.” The groups in the letter say Iowa is “on the frontlines of a drinking water emergency” and the changes the bill plans to make to the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘We clearly have a problem’: Des Moines Water Works opposes EPA decision to rescind impaired water designations
Officials from Des Moines Water Works said Thursday a decision from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pertaining to water quality did “not align” with the “operational and financial” challenges the utility has faced in providing safe drinking water to Iowans. EPA previously designated seven river segments, including two connected to Des Moines’ source waters, as […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Trump EPA rescinds Biden-era decision to expand Iowa’s impaired water list
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded its previous decision to add seven segments to Iowa’s list of impaired waters due to their high nitrate concentrations. In November the agency decided the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ list of impaired waters only “partially” met the requirements of the Clean Water Act to identify waterways with identified pollutants […]
