Readers sound off on Project 2025, Iowa’s environment and a columnist’s honor

We’ve had a beautiful autumn summer. It’s been both weird and tiresome, but also welcome and pleasant.

That reminds me, it’s time to open the old mailbag.

Pour yourself a very hard cider and let’s get to work.

My column last Sunday comparing Iowa’s lousy environmental present to national policy prescriptions pitched by the conservative Heritage Foundation and its Project 2025, sparked a lot of reactions.

I received several positive emails. And some less so.

“You're an idiot,” one reader wrote. Bold and brief.

Another wrote,” You're nothing but TDS trash like all libs and Democrats everything you say is lies,”

In this case, the reader has diagnosed me with Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s a nifty shortcut around commenting on any point I made. Why bother because I’m crazy! Or maybe not, since all I do is lie. It’s complicated.

Other readers also played doctor.

“You only report your feelings. Its sad that I cant read the paper or watch news anymore. Your woke ideas are sick and like all liberals, you need help” a reader wrote.

Take that up with my handlers in Havana.

“You continue to spew lies to your readers in the rag they call the Gazette!! The rags future is short as the customer base is dying off your days are numbered as your lies are catching up and people are realizing the bulls — t you and mainstream media continue to spew !!!” another reader wrote, with ample use of exclamation points.

Later, the same reader added to his diatribe.

“I noticed you have no Honor! You can’t defend your lies !!!! You’re a pathetic example of a reporter and man !!!”

No honor? I’ll have you know I’ve received honorable mention in several prestigious journalism contests.

Another reader left a voicemail message, “Trump's denounced 2025. I don't know a hundred times, and you're still pushing it. What a lackey! You're a piece of,”

We’ll leave it at that.

Hey, if you want to believe Donald Trump is honestly shunning a blueprint for his second term written in large part by Trump loyalists who are likely to land jobs in his administration, that’s fine with me. I think he’s denouncing the 900-page document simply because it’s politically unpopular and he will seek to enact many of its recommendations.

And I hope we never get to know who is right.

“You do realize that project 2025 endorsed Kamala right?!” a reader claimed.

The Heritage Foundation, which published Project 2025, has not endorsed Kamala Harris.

Truth is Mikey Edwards, a longtime Oklahoma politician and a founding trustee of the foundation, endorsed Harris. He also endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. The Oklahoman reports Edwards hasn’t been involved with Heritage since the 1970s and early 1980s.

Take this grain of truth, sprinkle on some social media magic and the story is transformed into Project 2025 is endorsing Harris. Nope.

One reader dug a little deeper into my arguments.

“What LOVES carbon? Yes, plants … and who needs plants to live? We do. With more carbon in the atmosphere, plants and food are growing bigger. And poof, the hole in the Ozone is gone.

“Yes, Algae is a problem, so where is it coming from? Did you know farmers are applying LESS nitrogen than ever before?” The reader blamed, instead, “LARGE gated communities up stream with their prestige manicured lawns.”

So, are we really using less fertilizer than ever before?

In crop year 2022, producers used 5.27 million metric tons of fertilizer, according to numbers compiled by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. That’s well above the 10-year average, which is 4.49 million metric tons.

In crop year 2023, producers used 4.94 million metric tons of fertilizer, less than 2022 but still above the average. We have yet to see any 2024 figures.

Even if fertilizer use dropped, landowners are installing more tile drainage, which drains fields faster and more efficiently. Nutrients go along for the ride and can end up in our waterways.

Another troubling trend is farmers are applying a considerable amount of fertilizer in the fall. In 2022, 2.69 million metric tons of fertilizer was applied between July and December.

Fertilizer applied to ground without a crop to soak it up poses a higher risk to water quality.

Does more fertilizer cost money? Yes. But lower yields are also costly. Some farmers are using less, but to many still see overapplication as a kind of crop insurance for growing more corn.

As for the “prestige lawns,” the Iowa DNR reports that 92% of nitrogen in waterways comes from nonpoint sources. Dominant among nonpoint sources are crops and livestock.

If you shut down all the golf courses, and turned all our lawns into prairies, you still wouldn’t make a significant dent in nitrogen contamination. It would look cool, however.

As I said, some readers appreciated the column.

“Thank you for the editorial in today's Gazette. I hope it will be widely distributed and read,” a reader wrote.

“We appreciate your well written articles and continued support of our best interests,” wrote another.

“What an American courageous truthful article you have presented,” another said.

Courageous? He obviously didn’t hear about my lack of honor.

(319) 291-1762; todd.dorman@thegazette.com