Iowa City, Iowa — A scientist who’s monitored Iowa’s water quality in the public and private sectors for 36 years is retiring this week, while also publishing a book about what he says are the reasons our waterways are dying.
Chris Jones has run the state’s largest water sensor system at the University of Iowa’s Institute of Hydraulic Research for the past eight years. Jones says we need common-sense regulation of corn and soybean production about its environmental outcomes.
In his book, “The Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality,” Jones says Iowa has devoted the equivalent of 20 counties solely to growing corn that’s used to make ethanol.
Jones suggests the solution to the long-running water pollution problems may also lie in diversifying what we grow in Iowa. He says we only have two species covering the majority of our fertile cropland, corn and soybeans.
Jones hopes the book finds wide appeal, as he says it’s important that people, politicians, farmers, industry leaders, and everyone else, know the truth about what’s happening to Iowa’s water, and to that “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.
The book is being published by North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press. https://icecubepress.com/.
