The Tentinger feedlot in Remsen, Iowa, on a summer day.
Photograph by Walker Pickering for Bloomberg Businessweek
Why Iowa Chooses Not to Clean Up Its Polluted Water
Runoff from fields and feedlots fills Iowa’s waterways with dangerous nitrates. It would be fixable if not for the political and economic power of Big Ag.
In the town of Remsen, in Northwest Iowa, Steven Pick spent 34 years working at City Hall. As the city clerk, he rebuilt Remsen’s ball fields and swimming pool and served as president and vice president of the chamber of commerce. He managed a local baseball team, played third base and pitched.
Pick’s proudest endeavor, though, was his determined effort to protect the water supply for Remsen’s 1,600 residents. He’s the first to admit it didn’t succeed. In Iowa, which by some measures has the most polluted water in the US, people who advocate for the environment are widely scorned as enemies of farming. Outside the cities and universities, few dare criticize the state’s $50 billion agricultural industry—the farmers, food processors, tractor makers, chemical companies and ethanol producers that reign supreme in this Kingdom of Corn.