Iowa raises about 23 million hogs each year. That many animals produce a lot of manure—some 110 billion pounds of it—but no one keeps track of where it goes.
That’s a problem. Most manure from Iowa’s concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) gets spread as fertilizer across the state’s cropland, but if it isn’t handled well, the manure ends up in waterways, triggering algal blooms, polluting drinking water and endangering public health.
Anika Jane, ICN’s Iowa reporter, explains how the state’s tracking system is failing, practical steps to solve the problem, and why Iowa’s manure problem matters to residents both in and outside the state.
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Thank you,
Anika Jane Beamer
Reporter, Iowa
Anika Jane Beamer covers the environment and climate change in Iowa, with a particular focus on water, soil and CAFOs. A lifelong Midwesterner, she writes about changing ecosystems from one of the most transformed landscapes on the continent. She holds a master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a bachelor’s degree in biology and Spanish from Grinnell College. She is a former Outrider Fellow at Inside Climate News and was named a Taylor-Blakeslee Graduate Fellow by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
