Criticism of land use is not hatred of farmers

Earlier this year, I wrote a letter to the editor pointing out that the recent surge in tiling of farm fields has a cumulative effect on a watershed that causes the Cedar River and the Iowa River to rise and lower much more quickly and more dramatically than in the past. I also posed a question asking if it would take a class-action lawsuit to get someone to react to this because of the new, higher potential for flooding that this creates.

Since then, I've received a number of letters from readers who accused me of trespassing and of hating farmers. I'd like to clarify several things.

First, I was not trespassing and seldom, if ever, trespass.

Second, I do not hate farmers or farming. Farmers are my friends and neighbors.

Third, the class action lawsuit was not to be directed at individual farmers who tile. They have every right to do so.

I was thinking of the federal and the state governmental agencies that advise individual farmers on how to deal with standing water - for instance, the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

When your district soil commissioner makes an assessment about tiling, shouldn't he or she consider the cumulative effect on the downstream residents?

Perhaps I should ask the farmers who wrote me if they hate the people who live in Cedar Rapids or Iowa City. We're all in this together. Let's keep hatred out of it.

Steve Throssel

Eldora