In all of our reading about the floods and rebuilding Iowa, there is no mention of the role of agriculture in these recent events. Out of this catastrophe needs to come some understanding that industrial agriculture has caused many of the issues that happen downriver from cultivated land. A deterioration of good conservation and resource-management practices over the last 50 years has helped make these "rain events" even more catastrophic.
In all of our reading about the floods and rebuilding Iowa, there is
no mention of the role of agriculture in these recent events. Out of
this catastrophe needs to come some understanding that industrial
agriculture has caused many of the issues that happen downriver from
cultivated land. A deterioration of good conservation and
resource-management practices over the last 50 years has helped make
these "rain events" even more catastrophic.
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There was some discussion about this after the floods of '93, but agriculture policy continued to ignore the environment and implemented more policies that allowed Iowa to become the sacrifice area for agribusiness corporations, putting profit before stewardship.
Sen. Tom Harkin worked hard to get the Conservation Security Program
in place but has had to continually fight for appropriations for this
project. A good many Iowans understand the importance of agriculture in
this state, but few understand that while Mother Nature may send us
gully washers, human beings have added to the devastation...
Full Story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AI...