Cleaning up Iowa’s water isn’t about hating farmers

So, you were expecting the secretary of agriculture race in Iowa to be a robust, substantive and thoughtful debate over how best to clean up Iowa’s dirty water, fouled mostly by agricultural practices.

Well, the current ag secretary, Republican Mike Naig, will set you straight.

“I think I will have an opponent; looks like I will,” Naig told the Westside Conservative Club in suburban Des Moines.

“You’ve got somebody that is a, well, he’s been prolific in his writing about agriculture. He’s not a fan of it. In fact, I think you could say he hates ag, he hates farmers, and he intends to increase regulation and cost,” Naig said.

Yep, Naig argues water quality researcher author and speaker Chris Jones, who is mulling a run on the Democratic side, hates farmers. This is what you get in Iowa when you speak truth to power about Iowa’s polluted streams, rivers and lakes.

Jones has data to back up his assertion that agriculture must change in ways that protect our natural resources. Naig’s answer is a lazy taunting. Surely voters are too dumb to know what’s really happening

Jones hates farmers so much he doesn’t want their drinking water wells contaminated by nitrates. He doesn’t want producers and other Iowans to suffer potentially serious illnesses tied to long-term exposure to nitrate concentrations below federal drinking water standards. “Iowa: The Cancer State” is not a welcome sign.

Jones hates farmers so much, he wants more of them to grow crops beyond corn and soybeans that won’t pollute our water.

Jones has so much contempt for rural Iowa he wants to clean up water some rural communities depend on as a destination for visitors. Beaches closed due to fertilizer-fed toxic algae blooms aren’t much of a draw.

One guy’s “hate” is another guy’s facts, data and science.

Who are you going to believe?

In Naig’s world, presented by the Iowa Farm Bureau, our water is getting better. We’ve spent a mountain of money on farm conservation projects, so it has to be better. Forget about an ocean of hog manure, increasing application of nitrate fertilizer, miles of drainage tile lines and persistent practices such as fall tillage and winter manure application.

Blame it on the rain, even as more frequent deluges become the new normal.

Some farmers are adopting responsible practices. That’s laudable. But have you ever seen a report showing how much nitrate is being halted by all these projects? You haven’t and you never will. The state requires no monitoring to tell us if our money is making water cleaner.

Republicans are defunding most of the nitrate monitoring sensors we have. Iowa’s nitrate pollution ranks among the highest in the nation, according to a study commissioned by Polk County. The study by 16 scientists analyzing 50 years of data has been presented to hundreds of Iowans gathered to hear the truth.

But Naig knows who has his back. In October 2018, when it looked like he might lose, the Farm Bureau rallied commodity groups and agribusinesses to bankroll TV ads for Naig.

Truth is, Iowans have seen the endless stream of reports on pollution incidents and watched the state’s largest city struggle to deal with high nitrate levels in its drinking water. Telling them all’s well is dishonest. Voters hate that.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com