Why do we tolerate poison in our land and water?

It is 2025, and somehow it is still legal to poison Iowa’s land, water, and people. Not only legal, but sanctioned, subsidized, and spun as “progress.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University, farmers in our state apply an astonishing 54 million pounds of pesticides and 2 billion pounds of fertilizer every single year. Those numbers aren’t just statistics on a spreadsheet, they represent an unfolding public health and environmental crisis. They represent contaminated rivers, collapsing soil health, disappearing pollinators, poisoned air, and a rising tide of cancers in rural communities.

Iowa applies more pesticides than any other state in the nation. Herbicides to kill weeds. Insecticides to eliminate bugs. Fungicides to scorch away fungi. These poisons are applied again and again throughout the growing season, often sprayed from airplanes, drifting far beyond the fields they were meant for. They do not obey property lines. They do not stay neatly on the corn and soybeans they target. They travel into neighborhoods, schoolyards, and parks, where families live, children play, and communities gather.

The fertilizer story is equally grotesque. Iowa leads the nation in fertilizer use, much of it produced by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that already cause unbearable harm to rural communities. This waste, spread across fields in staggering amounts, seeps into our groundwater, runs off into our rivers, and flows into the Mississippi, where it feeds the ever-expanding dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. This is not farming. It is the systematic export of ecological destruction, disguised as business as usual.

And while the land and water suffer, so do people. Researchers at the University of Iowa and the National Cancer Institute have found troubling links between chemical exposure and higher cancer rates. Rural families bury loved ones too soon, while the industry and its political allies continue to profit. This is not “farm dust.” It is a toxic haze we are forced to breathe, eat, and drink. It is the slow poisoning of our state.

Enough is enough.

The obscene truth is that we already know the alternatives. Regenerative agriculture, organic methods, crop rotation, and soil-building practices are not only possible, they are proven. These practices sustain the land, protect water, and keep communities safe. But while farmers who choose these methods struggle for fair markets and meaningful support, the chemical giants thrive, and legislators turn a blind eye.

We cannot continue with polite silence while Iowa becomes a cautionary tale. The solutions are clear: ban aerial pesticide spraying, set strict limits on fertilizer runoff, hold CAFOs accountable for their waste, and provide real subsidies for farmers committed to sustainable practices. Anything less is a betrayal of our land, our people, and our future.

Iowans should not be asked to choose between feeding their families and poisoning them. We deserve better. We deserve clean water, safe air, and healthy soil. We deserve leaders who will put people before profit.

The time to act is now. Call your legislators. Demand accountability. Support the local farmers who are rejecting this toxic treadmill. Our health, our land, and our very future depend on it.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kasey Conrad, Mt. Pleasant