Resolution 2022: Transformative policies for clean water and climate

Every year brings more evidence that the climate is changing, and that the impacts for Iowans are profound and exacerbate existing inequalities. Yet, the type of policy responses from the Legislature and the federal government we are seeing are consistent with the those we have been seeing for decades regarding water quality. They all rely on the voluntary approach and subsidies to farmers for marginal changes to their operations that have not produced any meaningful change. In fact, our water has gotten worse and will continue to do so unless we put in place more transformative and equitable policies.

I wish for Iowa’s resolution for 2022 to include real, meaningful action toward climate change that goes beyond more subsidies for dubious carbon sequestration practices on farmland or biodigesters that will increase the number of livestock in confinement operations.

I wish for more diverse cropping systems beyond corn and soybeans, and for livestock to be on pasture so manure is not a waste product but a valuable alternative to fossil-fuel produced fertilizers.

I wish for forward-looking renewable energy sources like wind and solar, not obsolete ones like corn ethanol.

I wish for real funding to be devoted to addressing agriculture’s structural racism, and not for white farmers suing the federal government when it tries to redress historical wrongs.

I wish for Iowa’s taxpayers to recognize that we subsidize this unjust and unsustainable system, and we should have a voice and a role in making it better.

Silvia Secchi is professor of geographical and sustainability sciences at the University of Iowa.