Where was all that talk about farmers being “good people” when smaller, less rapacious farms were being chased off the land by policies that favored big ag? Are only large-scale farmers “good people”?
Lived in Iowa during 60's and 70's when farmers just piped all the cattle manure into the drainage ditches running through northwest Iowa farms near Laurens, Iowa hunting ducks. The reason polluters want to locate their most polluting projects in the more pristine areas of Iowa is because they can more easily meet the DNR pollution regulations since the background pollution is so low. Farmers are typically motivated by greed, ignorance, and arrogance. They hire undocumented immigrants to do the dangerous work. These immigrants get sick but can't report their illness and injuries or get treatment. These "commissions" are bought and paid for. The politicians owe their livelihood to rich donors who benefit from cheap energy production, cheap meat, and waste dissemination. When cigarette companies were accused of causing cancers, which they have never admitted to, they replied that they are just satisfying what the publics wants. And they have adjusted to providing addictive drugs that are less disgusting but probably just as bad. As long as the public wants tobacco, cheap meat, and cheap fuel, then corporations will gear up to satisfy those wants and will hang onto their profitable operations while creating even more. The public is slow to change its mind even while the environment is being polluted, and people are sickened. Look at all the people coming out of Walmart or eating in fast food restaurants if you want to see all the sick, bloated, obese Americans get into their new gas-guzzling pickup trucks here in Missouri. The don't cook and might buy premade, precooked food from the grocery stores that are full of junk food. Make a survey of adults and most of them are on numerous medications and have low immunity. Drive by the local hospitals and you can't find a parking space in the huge parking lots surrounding them. Americans believe in drugs, surgery, vaccinations and medical doctors. Cancer could become as common as colds or flue. But don't worry, the pharmaceutical industry has numerous drugs for those cancers to prolong life. I admire your dedication to exposing polluters and their supporters, but you are only saying what anyone should be able to figure out for themselves. I am past the point of believing that these wicked people can be stopped by talking or litigation. Those who can see where this is all going have to adjust their lifestyle in order to survive in this unjust society. At least as much as possible. Our water is polluted, our air is polluted, our food is polluted. Drugs and surgeries are supposed to be the solutions until people run out of money and the insurance companies stop paying. What do you think the solutions are to these problems? Just exposing polluters? Litigation? Will bankrupt you, just goes on forever and doesn't work. After my daughter was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, I suggested that her middle-class lifestyle might be to blame as well as living in Iowa which is the cancer capital of the United States. I was just wondering today if we aren't being dosed with pesticide laden pollen now that the record-breaking corn crop is near ripening. Pollen count is extremely high today. Our capitalistic society no doubt sees all this pollution as business opportunities.
The "thick legitimacy" of industrial agriculture, systematized by industry, government regulators (industry captured) and land grant academics (increasingly industry funded), is shielded by the mythology of "good" people acting in the interests of the common good. Combating with propaganda and undemocratic process the formation of thought and action for the commons is essential to keeping the thin legs of "thick" from being whittled by truth, exposing their creaky stool built on B.S., myth and lies. On such illegitimate legs, barons and kings -- tyranny of, by and for the "bigs" -- rise, while creeks, rivers, oceans and democracies die.
I just want to drop a note to thank you for being (what often must seem to you) a lone voice of reason in a caucophony of lies, misinformation and straight up bullshit. I imagine you must often feel like you're screaming into the void, but some of us are listening.
Please don't get discouraged and keep up the important work. Eventually, maybe, sanity will prevail.
You've nailed it, Tony. While many of us hold sane, rational beliefs of doing good for all, only a few possess the facts and the ability to articulate them. Those of us in the former category need to continue to encourage those in the latter, (I'm looking at you Chris,and Robert and others).
Tremendous reporting and commentary. Getting Alice in Wonderland vibes from the supervisors’ agenda item that apparently didn’t mean what it so plainly stated.
I work with two farms that have collaborated in digesters. One is absolutely increasing cow numbers due to financial incentives of the digester developers.
Both are using significant quantities of natural gas to heat the manure in the digesters to the optimum temperature to maximize biogas production. With credits, the biogas is worth 10x as much as gas from well! The Biogas is scrubbed and then trucked to a gas line which connects to California.
I feel bloated and upset. Leopold wrote early on it’s possible to preserve “unknown places” and not lose our economics. As you say, “I look at the natural beauty of Winneshiek County and ask myself why its elected leaders apparently want it to look like the rest of Iowa.”
Thanks for the reminder of group think and citation of Feynman’s books. Always provocative essays that stimulate some dormant cells in this old brain. I’m trying to find an EV that will get us off ethanol. Now I will be searching for an alternative to normal dairy— tough decision for a cheesehead.
Chris Jones you truly are an Iowa treasure and if your writing would not have at its core the speed gathering Iowa wagon running downhill, it would be nothing but joy.
Just a huge thank you for never giving up addressing Iowa‘s ills and pushing Iowans to pay attention!!
The discussion and building of digesters reminds me of my childhood experience.
My grandfather who was the son of a large agricultural estate in Schleswig Holstein, Germany, of which hecould not inherit any land because of present day laws in Germany, created upon his retirement a tiny, state of the arts agriculture. After he died, my grand mother continued to run this tiny agricultural Jewell. During WWII, this was a most valuable fact for several of her children’s’ families who had to flee bombing, war and politics and had found a safe haven on the Ammersee in Bavaria.
Schonforf am Ammersee also became a temporary home for Dr Karl Imhoff, engineer and inventor. He ad his wife befriended my grandmother and their son, two years older than I became a daily playmate and adventurous friend. Dr Imhoff brought to
My grandmother the idea of fitting “the Imhoff Tank” into the ground next to the manure pile and capture gas that would heat our houses. It was enormously exciting to me, I think I was 9. Sadly, because of the war, no materials, no supplies, nothing available this idea never materialized beyond the huge tank built into the ground.
I had to share this memory with you. I am certain you know all bout the IT.
I have been spreading the gospel about you and prompted several people to buy the Swine Republic.
Heard you on our local NPR station last weekend, WVIK. Question: If a livestock operation does NOT increase its herd, is a digester still bad, on balance? I ask because I recently attended a field day about a digester operation in Scott County operated with Roeslein Alternative Energy, which involved prairie strips. (I am not a farmer, fyi). Of course, only the benefits were discussed by the Roeslein reps. I am quite skeptical, although it's probably better than just constantly spreading manure. Of course, the real solution is to get rid of (or at least greatly reduce) these kinds of livestock operations, period. "Cancer alley" is not just in Louisiana.
At first glance methane generation from animal manure seems like a good idea. So does ethanol, cover crops, bio-chip reactors, no-till, buffer strips, and on and on. These all seem like a good idea until the numbers come in. For example, ISU and K State have determined total phosphorus loss to surface waters may actually increase when cover crops and no-till practices are employed. Their new phrase, "soil bound phosphorus" is used to divert attention from dissolved phosphorus which increases when soil test P rises due to over application. Can you imagine how large a buffer strip would have to be when fertilizer is applied at 3 times the crop utilization rate? I'll let you do the math. As a side note, there are 9 gallons of gasoline in 10 gallons of ethanol. The pump price of 9 gallons of gasoline costs more than 10 gallons of ethanol. Hmmm. It appears the one gallon of ethanol is free with $0.15 per gallon bonus so you will take it off their hands. The magic of agriculture subsidies is at work, working to take your tax dollars to pollute. Now don't get me wrong, some of these prescribed conservation practices are beneficial however, they Connot compete with over applying fertilizer. These practices generate handsome revenue for the operators. This enables easy competition with the sale of agriculture products abroad at tax payer expense. For the most part,, operators benefit while tax payers are left behind.When you have a process that turns a buck, keep doing it, more and more. These incentives are fueling our pollution.
A simple, no-nonsense solution is to apply manure at the "feed acre rate". That is, apply manure on the same number of acres that it took to grow feed for the animals. No commercial fertilizer needed.
Where was all that talk about farmers being “good people” when smaller, less rapacious farms were being chased off the land by policies that favored big ag? Are only large-scale farmers “good people”?
It is indeed an irony that allowing these “good people” to expand their operation is a burden to those who want to function in a more sustainable way.
And you are Iowa's Richard Feynman on water quality.
Lived in Iowa during 60's and 70's when farmers just piped all the cattle manure into the drainage ditches running through northwest Iowa farms near Laurens, Iowa hunting ducks. The reason polluters want to locate their most polluting projects in the more pristine areas of Iowa is because they can more easily meet the DNR pollution regulations since the background pollution is so low. Farmers are typically motivated by greed, ignorance, and arrogance. They hire undocumented immigrants to do the dangerous work. These immigrants get sick but can't report their illness and injuries or get treatment. These "commissions" are bought and paid for. The politicians owe their livelihood to rich donors who benefit from cheap energy production, cheap meat, and waste dissemination. When cigarette companies were accused of causing cancers, which they have never admitted to, they replied that they are just satisfying what the publics wants. And they have adjusted to providing addictive drugs that are less disgusting but probably just as bad. As long as the public wants tobacco, cheap meat, and cheap fuel, then corporations will gear up to satisfy those wants and will hang onto their profitable operations while creating even more. The public is slow to change its mind even while the environment is being polluted, and people are sickened. Look at all the people coming out of Walmart or eating in fast food restaurants if you want to see all the sick, bloated, obese Americans get into their new gas-guzzling pickup trucks here in Missouri. The don't cook and might buy premade, precooked food from the grocery stores that are full of junk food. Make a survey of adults and most of them are on numerous medications and have low immunity. Drive by the local hospitals and you can't find a parking space in the huge parking lots surrounding them. Americans believe in drugs, surgery, vaccinations and medical doctors. Cancer could become as common as colds or flue. But don't worry, the pharmaceutical industry has numerous drugs for those cancers to prolong life. I admire your dedication to exposing polluters and their supporters, but you are only saying what anyone should be able to figure out for themselves. I am past the point of believing that these wicked people can be stopped by talking or litigation. Those who can see where this is all going have to adjust their lifestyle in order to survive in this unjust society. At least as much as possible. Our water is polluted, our air is polluted, our food is polluted. Drugs and surgeries are supposed to be the solutions until people run out of money and the insurance companies stop paying. What do you think the solutions are to these problems? Just exposing polluters? Litigation? Will bankrupt you, just goes on forever and doesn't work. After my daughter was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, I suggested that her middle-class lifestyle might be to blame as well as living in Iowa which is the cancer capital of the United States. I was just wondering today if we aren't being dosed with pesticide laden pollen now that the record-breaking corn crop is near ripening. Pollen count is extremely high today. Our capitalistic society no doubt sees all this pollution as business opportunities.
The "thick legitimacy" of industrial agriculture, systematized by industry, government regulators (industry captured) and land grant academics (increasingly industry funded), is shielded by the mythology of "good" people acting in the interests of the common good. Combating with propaganda and undemocratic process the formation of thought and action for the commons is essential to keeping the thin legs of "thick" from being whittled by truth, exposing their creaky stool built on B.S., myth and lies. On such illegitimate legs, barons and kings -- tyranny of, by and for the "bigs" -- rise, while creeks, rivers, oceans and democracies die.
Excellent Lou! Thanks much.
Nicely stated Lou, thanks
I just want to drop a note to thank you for being (what often must seem to you) a lone voice of reason in a caucophony of lies, misinformation and straight up bullshit. I imagine you must often feel like you're screaming into the void, but some of us are listening.
Please don't get discouraged and keep up the important work. Eventually, maybe, sanity will prevail.
Thanks Tory I need to hear that
You've nailed it, Tony. While many of us hold sane, rational beliefs of doing good for all, only a few possess the facts and the ability to articulate them. Those of us in the former category need to continue to encourage those in the latter, (I'm looking at you Chris,and Robert and others).
Tremendous reporting and commentary. Getting Alice in Wonderland vibes from the supervisors’ agenda item that apparently didn’t mean what it so plainly stated.
This article, and preceding ones referenced in the article discusses the incentives pretty thoroughly.
https://agdatanews.substack.com/p/cow-poop-is-now-a-big-part-of-california?r=1eu3f8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
I work with two farms that have collaborated in digesters. One is absolutely increasing cow numbers due to financial incentives of the digester developers.
Both are using significant quantities of natural gas to heat the manure in the digesters to the optimum temperature to maximize biogas production. With credits, the biogas is worth 10x as much as gas from well! The Biogas is scrubbed and then trucked to a gas line which connects to California.
I feel bloated and upset. Leopold wrote early on it’s possible to preserve “unknown places” and not lose our economics. As you say, “I look at the natural beauty of Winneshiek County and ask myself why its elected leaders apparently want it to look like the rest of Iowa.”
Thanks for the reminder of group think and citation of Feynman’s books. Always provocative essays that stimulate some dormant cells in this old brain. I’m trying to find an EV that will get us off ethanol. Now I will be searching for an alternative to normal dairy— tough decision for a cheesehead.
Thanks Mike and thanks for reading.
On the positive side, this will help us beat Kentucky to claim the number one spot in cancer rates. We are stuck in second place.
Chris Jones you truly are an Iowa treasure and if your writing would not have at its core the speed gathering Iowa wagon running downhill, it would be nothing but joy.
Just a huge thank you for never giving up addressing Iowa‘s ills and pushing Iowans to pay attention!!
Renata Sack
The water quality bandwagon is dripping with manure.
The discussion and building of digesters reminds me of my childhood experience.
My grandfather who was the son of a large agricultural estate in Schleswig Holstein, Germany, of which hecould not inherit any land because of present day laws in Germany, created upon his retirement a tiny, state of the arts agriculture. After he died, my grand mother continued to run this tiny agricultural Jewell. During WWII, this was a most valuable fact for several of her children’s’ families who had to flee bombing, war and politics and had found a safe haven on the Ammersee in Bavaria.
Schonforf am Ammersee also became a temporary home for Dr Karl Imhoff, engineer and inventor. He ad his wife befriended my grandmother and their son, two years older than I became a daily playmate and adventurous friend. Dr Imhoff brought to
My grandmother the idea of fitting “the Imhoff Tank” into the ground next to the manure pile and capture gas that would heat our houses. It was enormously exciting to me, I think I was 9. Sadly, because of the war, no materials, no supplies, nothing available this idea never materialized beyond the huge tank built into the ground.
I had to share this memory with you. I am certain you know all bout the IT.
I have been spreading the gospel about you and prompted several people to buy the Swine Republic.
Thanks Renata!
Heard you on our local NPR station last weekend, WVIK. Question: If a livestock operation does NOT increase its herd, is a digester still bad, on balance? I ask because I recently attended a field day about a digester operation in Scott County operated with Roeslein Alternative Energy, which involved prairie strips. (I am not a farmer, fyi). Of course, only the benefits were discussed by the Roeslein reps. I am quite skeptical, although it's probably better than just constantly spreading manure. Of course, the real solution is to get rid of (or at least greatly reduce) these kinds of livestock operations, period. "Cancer alley" is not just in Louisiana.
At first glance methane generation from animal manure seems like a good idea. So does ethanol, cover crops, bio-chip reactors, no-till, buffer strips, and on and on. These all seem like a good idea until the numbers come in. For example, ISU and K State have determined total phosphorus loss to surface waters may actually increase when cover crops and no-till practices are employed. Their new phrase, "soil bound phosphorus" is used to divert attention from dissolved phosphorus which increases when soil test P rises due to over application. Can you imagine how large a buffer strip would have to be when fertilizer is applied at 3 times the crop utilization rate? I'll let you do the math. As a side note, there are 9 gallons of gasoline in 10 gallons of ethanol. The pump price of 9 gallons of gasoline costs more than 10 gallons of ethanol. Hmmm. It appears the one gallon of ethanol is free with $0.15 per gallon bonus so you will take it off their hands. The magic of agriculture subsidies is at work, working to take your tax dollars to pollute. Now don't get me wrong, some of these prescribed conservation practices are beneficial however, they Connot compete with over applying fertilizer. These practices generate handsome revenue for the operators. This enables easy competition with the sale of agriculture products abroad at tax payer expense. For the most part,, operators benefit while tax payers are left behind.When you have a process that turns a buck, keep doing it, more and more. These incentives are fueling our pollution.
A simple, no-nonsense solution is to apply manure at the "feed acre rate". That is, apply manure on the same number of acres that it took to grow feed for the animals. No commercial fertilizer needed.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/09/03/largest-cattle-feedlot-in-nebraska-to-begin-taking-feeders-later-this-month/ this outta NE - just absurd - as we’ve learned nothing in the last century
Yes I knew about this and yes we’ve learned nothing, in fact we’ve unlearned some things
"Blackshirt Feeders" is the name of this operation? At least they're on point with the branding.
Wow- thank you. I just started reading about a massive state of the art feed lot in NE and now stumbled on your piece.