(Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)) After massive rainfalls in 2008, one early morning in June, our fire chief updated Cedar Falls city staff and City Council members on the latest flood conditions; parts of the city were already flooded badly.
All other plans were put on hold.
There was no arguing, no dithering.
Now, imagine if at that time a well-financed group ran many ads on radio, TV and newspapers all over the region, and had published opinion pieces in local newspapers and had placed guest experts on radio talk shows, floating stories that we don’t know for sure whether a flood is coming, let’s not overreact, and that all this talk of floods is a hoax.
What would happen if public officials fell for such falsehoods instead of acting based on evidence?
Similarly, for the past many decades, global agribusiness agents in Iowa have been working hard to make sure Iowa’s public officials and residents do not perceive and do not act on the urgency of polluted streams, the urgency of soil erosion and contaminated drinking water, or the urgency of Iowans well-being compromised by massive animal confinement operations, or by annual spraying of 35 million pounds of corn and bean pesticides.
And yet, through math, ecology and health sciences, we have robust and overwhelming evidence of these realities, meaning — IOWANS ARE IN DANGER — much like the flood data that compelled Cedar Falls officials to perceive the emergency of flood and act immediately.
If a foreign power had caused so much destruction in our state, we would send in the Marines.
I imagine a command post would be set up immediately for coordinating a massive mobilization in Iowa.
We finally would realize that we cannot allow Iowa’s soil and water to be degraded for the sake of foreign trade, and demand that we abandon the cheap-corn federal policies that have, in effect, incentivized water pollution and soil erosion.