Last week, the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) launched a new website, decliningdecade.org, to mark the tenth anniversary of the state’s taxpayer-funded nutrient reduction strategy (NRS). We created the site to counter the narrative being pushed by agricultural businesses and organizations that say progress on the NRS is going great and Iowa is taking appropriate action to address nutrient pollution. These groups were very involved in the crafting of the voluntary approach to fertilizer pollution in the NRS, and they are heavily invested in its status quo implementation. There are many examples of local initiatives and farmers that are doing the right things: putting conservation practices on the ground and sharing their stories with others to encourage further adoption. However, focusing on individual stories alone – without shining light on the systemic failures of the voluntary approach and the continuous erosion of state leadership’s support for water quality – circumvents the conversation about policy solutions we need to make actual progress on nutrient pollution reduction. Until we are able to transform how we address fertilizer pollution through policy and regulation, the NRS will be no more than a cover for 'business-as-usual' conventional agriculture. We invite you to visit decliningdecade.org to view IEC publications, fact sheets, news stories, and blog posts, as well as external reports and articles, all in one place, to get a more complete picture of Iowa’s fertilizer pollution crisis. |
|
