Latest News

FB Video Reel: Iowa built an Agricultural Powerhouse. What did it cost?

Policy experts, healthcare providers and farmers from across the state gathered at Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines Thursday to announce a new campaign: Protect Water Prevent Cancer.

ALLEMAN – Hydrologic monitoring stations that help researchers compile flood and drought information useful for farmers and communities will soon be deployed across all of southwestern Iowa, following funding announced Friday by U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn.

Real change occurs in America when civic pressures from outside the centers of influence force insiders to retreat. A compelling example of that type of systemic change is now unfolding in Iowa.

Exposure to a widely used herbicide during the middle months of pregnancy may increase the chance of giving birth too early, before 37 weeks, a new study shows.

Urinary Glyphosate (N-(Phosphonomethyl)glycine) Data Tables Published

An Eco-Ag Look at President Trump’s Regenerative Agriculture Executive Order

The Supreme Court’s ‘Monsanto’ decision along with ‘corporate capture’ deliver a one-two punch to the little guy. Why we must continue the fight.

The environmental group Food & Water Watch is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to supply requested information about a nitrate assessment.

Will they pick the same old song and dance or face the facts?

Dead fish were found up to three miles downstream of the Chem Gro cooperative spill.

Nitrate Contamination in U.S. Drinking Water – Urgent Call for Action

Twelve-year, $319M program includes water monitoring, treatment plant upgrades

Today, the Iowa Environmental Council and The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement released a new report, "Environmental Risk Factors and Iowa's Cancer Crisis."

The Trump administration’s relentless rollback of public health and environmental protections has allowed widespread toxic exposures to flourish, warn experts who helped implement safeguards now under assault.

Our Water, Our Future: A Look at the Central Iowa Water Quality Report presentation that took place on August 4, 2025.

The paper found that the chemical, the active ingredient in Roundup, wasn't a human health risk despite evidence of a cancer link.

Episode 13: Comparing National, State, and Local Water Regulations in Iowa and Minnesota
Canary In A Cornfield

In a setback for the pesticide industry, Democrats have succeeded in removing a rider from a congressional appropriations bill...

Top regulatory officials met with agricultural and chemical industry representatives dozens of times in the first few months after President Donald Trump took office in January, government records show — meetings that were followed by a series of regulatory rollbacks and a downplaying of pesticide concerns by the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) Commission.

Nitrate from fertilizer and manure befouls countless waterways and kitchen taps across the US. But unlike other big polluters, from petroleum to plastics, Big Agriculture has largely avoided responsibility for its dirty footprint.

A new investigation reveals how Amazon is amplifying Oregon’s nitrate pollution crisis.

A fertilizer spill killed hundreds of thousands of fish in southwest Iowa last year. Now, a group of locals are building a network of citizen scientists and advocates for clean water.

Listen to this 15-minute podcast on how Iowa agriculture is connected to our clean water.

The Iowa Izaak Walton League recently hosted a 2025 Watershed Talk.

Manure management planning could prevent fertilizer pollution. But an antiquated system isn’t doing enough to track manure, a former state employee says.

A scientific study that regulators around the world relied on for decades to justify continued approval of glyphosate was quietly retracted last Friday over serious ethical issues including secret authorship by Monsanto employees –

What do you do when a fertilizer spill ravages your local stream, killing hundreds of thousands of fish across two states? For a group of clean water advocates in Southwest Iowa the answer to that question was clear – you organize.

he Harkin Institute and Polk County is holding the first official presentation of findings from the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment (CISWRA) report—a groundbreaking scientific study that provides the most comprehensive analysis of water quality in the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers to date.

DNR investigating hog manure spill in Carroll County

TNL’s Editor-in-Chief Carey Gillam traveled to Iowa to hear directly from the people living through an ongoing water crisis.

In conversations with residents, farmers, politicians and scientists, a troubling picture emerged: dangerously high levels of nitrates and pesticides are contaminating drinking water across the state.

Weekly Water Watch Newsletter

Secretary of Agriculture is one of seven executive offices Iowans see on their off-year voting ballot.

Check the lists of beaches before you swim.

If you missed our first meeting on April 6th, you can check out Chris Jones, Ph.d, speaking on water quality in Iowa. We recorded his presentation for you to watch

Our first meeting as the Nishnabotna Water Defenders was featured on KMTV recently. You can learn more about it here.

Check out Chris Jones, Ph.d, speaking on water quality in Iowa. We recorded his presentation for you to watch!

Our first meeting as the Nishnabotna Water Defenders was featured on KMTV recently. You can learn more about it here.