Money Laundering in the Big Ag Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a collection of organisms that interact with one another and the physical environment to form a functioning unit; nutrient and energy flows bond the codependent species and individuals within species. Some ecosystems include a diverse assemblage of many different species (rain forest); others are not so diverse (tundra). Of course, ecosystems commonly […]

For What It’s Worth

eagles

There’s something happening hereBut what it is ain’t exactly clearThere’s a man with a gun over thereTelling me I got to beware The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is one of four separate agencies within USDA, with the others being the Economic Research Service (ERS), the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and the National […]

Stray Dogma

secretary

“The Party has taught you all to be cunning, and whoever becomes too cunning loses all decency.”—Arthur Koestler in Darkness at Noon I suspect most of my readers share my repugnance for the now repulsively-named Republican Party, no longer a political party per se but rather a secular religion that might as well go ahead […]

Cereal Killer Gifts Weapon to Iowa Farmers

President Ralph Kramden announced Saturday (2/1/25) that the U.S. was slapping a 25% tariff on all goods from our closest ally, Canada. Pow, right in the kisser, Justin Trudeau. Ralph says we have all the lumber and oil that we need and that if they don’t like it, Canucks can just erase their southern border […]

Well, Drained.

Finally, the end of a sad chapter for Iowa agriculture

A Democracy Runs Through It

Iowa native Norman Maclean (1902-1990) published only two works (The Theory of Lyric Poetry from the Renaissance to Coleridge [1940] and A Manual of Instruction in Military Maps and Aerial Photographs [1943]) before publishing A River Runs Through It, when he was 74 years old in 1976. I cannot read the last 1500 or so […]

Big, if True

corn yield

Are farmers reducing nitrogen application rates?

Indigestion

crowd

Richard Feynman, groupthink, and more pollution for Winneshiek County

@chrisjones4ia

Want to know why our water is so contaminated? 2,000,000 miles of drainage tile.

♬ original sound - Chris Jones for IA AgSecretary
@chrisjones4ia

If we really want clean water in Iowa, we need to talk about ethanol.

♬ original sound - Chris Jones for IA AgSecretary
@chrisjones4ia We need an Iowa Secretary of Agriculture for the people not just corporate agriculture. #iowa #water #waterquality #agriculture #farming ♬ original sound - Chris Jones for IA AgSecretary
@chrisjones4ia

Four companies control nearly 80% of the meat industry in the U.S. It’s time to bring back local processors like Stacyville Poultry Processor, support small towns, and create high-quality jobs where they’re needed most.

♬ original sound - Chris Jones for IA AgSecretary

Which do you want coming out of your tap?