Candidate says diversification will improve Iowa water

WILLIAMSBURG — Chris Jones, Democrat candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, said he’s well-qualified to address Iowa’s water quality problem.

Jones managed water quality testing for Des Moines Waterworks, helped deploy independent water quality monitoring systems as an environmental scientist with the Iowa Soybean Association and helped develop public water quality sensor network as a research engineer with the University of Iowa.

“I think it’s given me a perspective on these things.”

Jones made the comments at the office of the Iowa County Democrats in Williamsburg during Third Fridays on the square Aug. 21.

Water quality has been an issue for years, said Jones. During his eight years managing the water quality testing lab in Des Moines, water quality problems were discussed behind closed doors but not in public. You can’t talk bad about agriculture, he said.

“We’ve struggled with this for at least 20 years.” That’s what encouraged Jones to enter the race.

Iowa has had almost 20 years of Republican leadership in ag, said Jones. Mike Naig has been the Secretary of Agriculture since 2019, and Republican Bill Northey held the position from 2007 to 2019.

Jones claimed that Naig has spent a billion dollars on water quality in 10 years. “Does the water look a billion dollars better to you?”

As for nitrates in drinking water, people have known for have known for 26 year that high nitrates increase cancer rates, said Jones.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nitrate occurs naturally in groundwater, but concentrations greater than 3 mg/l generally indicate contamination

EPA’s maximum contaminant level for nitrate is 10 mg/l, set to protect against blue baby syndrome.

Jones suggested reducing at level to 3 parts per million to reduce cancer risks. “if we can reduce the risk through policy… why don’t we do that?”

Diversifying Iowa ag

Iowa can’t have good water quality by producing two crops, said Jones. Farmers need to diversify, grow fruits and vegetables and oats. Iowa imports oats from Canada he said. “Why don’t we grow oats here?” It would give Iowa better water quality, he said.

Iowa has some infrastructure for diversified crops, but it has no funding for it, said Jones. Taxpayer should participate in creating an infrastructure for a new system of agriculture, said Jones. They already pay subsidies for insurance.

Diversifying could lower Iowa’s cancer rates, said Jones. People need to eat a healthy diet, but that means growing healthy food here, not eating food that uses chemicals to keep it fresh while its shipped from California, he said.

Iowa also needs to return to small-scale livestock production, said Jones. A farmer used to be able to have 50 head of cattle and 100 head of hogs, he said, but they can’t now because big processing plants won’t take the animals.

“We’ve lost control of agriculture,” said Jones. It’s in the hands of big ag and the government.

Jones said it costs $912 to produce an acre of corn but only $250 for an acre of oats. Agriculture companies wants farmers growing corn so the money flows to them, he said. The way to beat them is to create a system in which you don’t need them.

Diversifying crops will also make farmers less reliant on chemical companies like Bayer.

While Jones agrees the state needs more natural habitat, he said the land’s highest use is producing food. Jones estimated that about 70% of Iowa’s corn is used to make ethanol. Most of the soybeans are used to feed livestock, he said.

“We need a policy here,” Jones said. Land use, land ownership, should be geared to what society needs most.

Over half the land in Iowa is rented, said Jones. It’s owned by the Latter Day Saints, hedge funds, NFL players. Iowa need to get the land into other hands, said Jones, but private property rights are a touchy subject.

The state has spend $70 million on E-85 pumps, said Jones. That money could be used “to create something else that’s going to help us more.”

“Democrats have been big fans of ethanol,” said Jones, but they haven’t been big about water quality. He thinks that’s changing.

“I do think people are fed up.”

Save Our Bacon

Asked about the “Save Our Bacon Act” proposed by Rep. Ashley Hinson, Jones said “I think what Ashley Hinson is doing here is so stupid,” though big producers such as Smithfield Foods love it.

“We have people who own thousands and thousands of hogs here,” said Jones. “A lot of our farmers have already converted. Are we going to compensate them?”

The bill cites the interstate commerce clause to deny the right of a state to set conditions for products coming from another state, such as California’s Proposition 12 which prohibits the sale of certain meat and poultry products unless they are produced in accordance to California’s animal housing requirements.

In May 2023, the US Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12 in a 5 — 4 decision. The Court noted that Congress has the authority to determine how states may interfere with interstate commerce.