This Land Was Made For You And Me (Part One)
Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Iowa Department of Agriculture…some time later, the name was changed to include the phrase “and Land Stewardship”. The addition was made to properly reflect the fact that this greatest of all natural resources—Iowa’s farm ground—needed protection in order to make sure it was viable for future generations.
And that’s why it pains me greatly to see it destroyed…not by farmers, but by developers and politicians.
This is the most productive food-generating land on the planet. Iowa’s farmers literally feed the world.
But we not only take that resource for granted, we seem to be going out of our way lately to destroy the very thing that makes Iowa special.
Taking good Iowa land out of production for a housing development may generate short-term gain—both in terms of the economy and population growth—but at what cost to our way of life and ability to feed ourselves and others?
And even easier target—and a more insidious one—is this new notion of installing massive wind turbines and calling them “wind farms”…you know, instead of growing corn, we’re growing energy. It’s a true blight on the landscape visually with harmful effects still to be determined from their proximity to homes, impact on nature, etc.—including productivity of surrounding land.
Solar farms? Also not a fan. Why take good productive land out of service—forever—when there’s plenty of less productive land that might (again, might) be used for that purpose? Yes, the Palo proposal is in the front of my mind, but it’s hardly the only one.
That’s all bad enough…but there’s a latest horrible idea…more on that tomorrow.
