A call for Iowa officials to pass clean water legislation

Thank you to Erin Jordan for her incisive reporting on the rampant growth of mega-dairies in Iowa, all thanks to misplaced green energy credits in California. Designed to reduce climate pollution in California, the perverse incentives in the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program are instead encouraging factory farms across the country to get bigger, and pollute more. Iowans are paying for it with our dirty water and our health. And unfortunately, over the weekend, a California agency just voted to make it worse.

Our right to clean water is under assault — and rather than do something about it, our leaders are busy transforming this basic human right into the next culture war. Iowa already produces more factory farm waste than any other state, with recent Food & Water Watch analysis showing that the state’s industrial operations produce 109 billion pounds of manure annually — 25 times the state’s human waste. Much of that ends up in our water, and is tied to everything from high bills to rising cancer rates.

We can’t afford to let corporations turn manure into Iowa’s biggest commodity, bringing more, larger factory farms and more pollution to Iowa. Food & Water Watch is calling on California’s Governor Newsom to reform the Low Carbon Fuel Standard; and we’re calling on Iowa legislators to pass the Clean Water for Iowa Act to rein in factory farm pollution for good.

Jennifer Breon

Food & Water Watch Iowa Organizer

Iowa City