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Bleeding Heartland
It's what plants crave.
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agriculture 
Mon May 13, 2013 at 16:45:00 PM CDT
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(Interesting commentary by an attorney and Iowa House member about a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling and the bill drafted in response. - promoted by desmoinesdem)
cross-posted with permission from State Representative Mary Wolfe's blog
There have been many questions/concerns raised by the Iowa Supreme Court's recent ruling in Sallee v. Stewart, in which the Court was asked to interpret Iowa's Recreational Land Use Immunity doctrine. Like most of my colleagues, I've read the relevant court cases and studied the applicable statutes, and I've reviewed House File 605, the Farm Bureau's proposed bill intended to fix the "crisis" allegedly created by the Sallee ruling - and like many others, I've concluded that the actual impact of the Sallee ruling on Iowa's recreational land use immunity doctrine is minimal, and that the Farm Bureau's proposed legislation is an over-reaction to Sallee's extremely narrow holding.
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Wed Apr 24, 2013 at 11:20:00 AM CDT
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Shortly after Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds ruled out running for U.S. Senate next year, Republican State Senator Joni Ernst posted on Facebook, "I will be considering a run for US Senate."
Today Ernst and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey discussed the factors influencing their decision on whether to run for Senate.
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Mon Apr 22, 2013 at 20:17:00 PM CDT
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What's on your mind this Earth Day, Bleeding Heartland readers? This is an open thread: all topics welcome.
Today I had the pleasure of watching my friend and personal hero, 1000 Friends of Iowa co-founder LaVon Griffieon, educate groups of elementary school students about soil conservation. She carved up an apple to illustrate how little of the earth's surface is arable land, and by extension why we need to preserve our farmland. Several versions of this "apple earth" demo are available on YouTube. I've posted a couple of examples after the jump.
Speaking of our priceless Iowa farmground, Iowa State University is collecting data on soil erosion here. The researchers are interested in photographs of farm fields that have "experienced substantial soil movement or loss" due to spring rainstorms. You can submit photos to the Iowa Daily Erosion Project in the ISU Department of Agronomy.
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Tue Apr 02, 2013 at 07:15:00 AM CDT
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In an ideal world, evidence that more than half of Midwest rivers and streams can't support aquatic life would inspire policy-makers to clean up our waterways. Rivers that are suitable for swimming, fishing, and other recreation can be a huge economic engine for Iowa communities.
We live in Iowa, where most of our lawmakers take the Patty Judge view: "Iowa is an agricultural state and anyone who doesn't like it can leave in any of four directions."
Yesterday the Iowa House approved a bill to relax manure storage regulations for large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). All of the House Republicans and two-thirds of the Democrats supported this bad legislation. Details on the bill and the House vote are below.
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Tue Mar 26, 2013 at 20:40:00 PM CDT
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After testing waterways at about 2,000 sites during 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that 55 percent of rivers and streams in the country are "in poor condition for aquatic life." One of the biggest problems was nutrient pollution from excessive levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. Reduced vegetation cover near streams also contributed to poor water quality. Only 21 percent of U.S. river and stream length was judged to be in "good" condition, with another 23 percent in "fair" condition.
Compared to an EPA survey conducted in 2004, the latest data show a smaller percentage of rivers and streams in good condition and a higher percentage in poor condition.
An EPA summary of the key findings is after the jump. You can find more data on the National Aquatic Resource Surveys here, including this two-page fact sheet (pdf) and the full draft report (pdf). Iowa is part of the "temperate plains" region, discussed on pages 78 through 80 of that report. I've posted an excerpt below. Only 15 percent of rivers and streams in the temperate plains region were judged to be in good condition; 55 percent were in poor condition.
Iowa should reject the all-voluntary nutrient reduction strategy favored by agricultural interest groups. Given the awful state of our rivers and streams, we need some mandatory steps to reduce nutrient pollution, including numeric standards for nitrogen and phosphorus. Both EPA staff and environmental advocates in Iowa have called for strengthening the nutrient reduction strategy. Unfortunately, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey has a firmly closed mind.
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Fri Mar 22, 2013 at 09:45:00 AM CDT
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This week Congress approved a continuing spending resolution to fund the federal government through the end of the current fiscal year on September 30. Iowa's delegation split on this compromise, but not strictly along party lines. Details on the budget compromise and how the Iowans voted are after the jump.
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Fri Mar 01, 2013 at 10:50:00 AM CST
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Governor Terry Branstad announced a long list of appointees to state boards and commissions today. I've posted the full press release after the jump, along with background on some of the most newsworthy nominations. The governor tapped several former state lawmakers or candidates for the legislature, as well as his younger son, Marcus Branstad.
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Thu Feb 21, 2013 at 10:55:00 AM CST
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The future of Iowa's Congressional representation is not encouraging, judging from the latest League of Conservation Voters' scorecard.
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Wed Feb 06, 2013 at 09:16:48 AM CST
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Yesterday Senator Tom Harkin withdrew his offer to donate his papers to Iowa State University, in effect dooming the Harkin Institute of Public Policy created there in 2011.
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Tue Jan 29, 2013 at 15:02:35 PM CST
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About an hour ago, President Barack Obama finished speaking to a Nevada audience about basic principles for comprehensive immigration reform. Yesterday four Democratic and four Republican U.S. senators unveiled a framework for a new immigration reform bill. Links and details about those proposals are after the jump, along with recent comments about immigration by some of the Iowans in Congress. I will update this post as needed with further reaction.
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Thu Jan 24, 2013 at 20:30:15 PM CST
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(The author is an organic farmer with a Phd in soil science. He was the Democratic nominee for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture in 2010. - promoted by desmoinesdem)
We have been hearing a lot of hype from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey about how the voluntary approach to changing agricultural practices to improve water quality -- as proposed in the Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS) -- will be effective. However, my experience in over 25 years of work on water quality tells me that this is very naive thinking at best, and deceptive to the public at worst. Below are the comments on the NRS that I submitted a few days ago.
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Mon Jan 14, 2013 at 11:15:00 AM CST
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Multiple news sources are reporting today that as expected, Tom Vilsack will stay in President Barack Obama's cabinet as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
The USDA has a budget of about $150 billion and is the third-biggest cabinet agency in spending after Defense and Health and Human Services. Food stamps for needy families account for about half of the department's spending, with the remainder taken up by other nutrition programs and subsidies for farmers such as insurance for crops including corn, wheat and cotton.
Working on a new long-term farm bill will be a major task for Congress this year. The "fiscal cliff" deal extended some but not all important farm programs temporarily.
Vilsack may tangle with Representative Steve King, who just became chairman of the House Agriculture subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, and Nutrition.
Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread. In other Obama cabinet news, Janet Napolitano will keep her job as head of the Department of Homeland Security.
UPDATE: Interesting trivia courtesy of Alan Bjerga: "Should he serve until 2017, the former Iowa governor would be the first person to head the Department of Agriculture for two terms since Orville Freeman led the agency under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s."
SECOND UPDATE: Added a statement from Vilsack after the jump.
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 at 08:19:45 AM CST
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What's on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? This is an open thread.
After the jump I've posted a bunch of links about finances and spending, large and small.
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Fri Jan 11, 2013 at 09:10:00 AM CST
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency submitted lengthy comments this week on Iowa's draft strategy for reducing nutrients in waterways. I've posted the full text of EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks' letter after the jump. The EPA found more problems with the "nonpoint source" part of the strategy, which primarily addresses runoff from farms. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship drafted the nonpoint source part of the nutrient strategy, largely without input from Iowa Department of Natural Resources staff who are experts on agricultural runoff. Under "general comments," the EPA confirmed that rejecting numeric criteria for nutrient pollution from farms "does not reflect the EPA's current thinking." The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation applauded that aspect of the nutrient strategy. We'll see whose view holds sway in the final version.
The Iowa DNR was responsible for drafting the "point source" part of the nutrient strategy, which addresses municipal and industrial discharges (such as from wastewater treatment facilities) into rivers and streams. The EPA submitted only minor suggestions for improving the point source section.
Iowa citizens and advocacy groups have until January 18 to comment on the nutrient strategy.
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