Several years into an academic career, University of Iowa research engineer Chris Jones realized his research and journal articles weren’t going to lead to improvements in Iowa’s water quality.
He decided to start writing about why many of Iowa’s lakes aren’t safe for swimming and about rivers and streams whisking soil and harmful levels of nutrients downstream.
“For me to rationalize being a public employee, if I couldn’t get them better water quality, I could at least give them the truth about it,” Jones said in an interview with The Gazette. “The environmental problems we have here are not unique to Iowa. What is unique to Iowa, I think, is the death grip the industry and the culture of agriculture has on the discourse about these problems.”
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Jones, whose wry, often-provocative essays have appeared on a UI blog since 2015, now has written a book called “Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality.” The book, which includes 69 essays — including several new to readers — goes on sale May 19 through Ice Cube Press.
Jones retires from the UI on May 16 after eight years. He was paid $126,631 last fiscal year, state records show.
Before coming to the university, Jones, 62, worked as a laboratory supervisor at Des Moines Water Works from 2003 to 2011 and then as an environmental scientist for the Iowa Soybean Association from 2011 to 2015.
His work at the UI includes studying how nitrate and phosphorus wash from farm fields into waterways. Over the years, he’s overseen water sensors installed on Iowa’s streams and rivers to measure nitrate loads and concentration.
Sensor data feed directly into the Iowa Water Quality Information System, which has an interactive map online.
Nitrates in drinking water have been linked to cancer, rashes, hair loss, birth defects and other health problems, including infant methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome. High levels of nitrate and phosphorus spur growth of toxic algae, which has been an ongoing problem at some Iowa beaches.
“This is a quality-of-life issue for people,” Jones said. “We see people who vacation in Minnesota or Colorado. We could have those types of experiences here in Iowa if we were able to clean up our act.”
In his essay called “No Country For Old Men,” included in “Swine Republic,” Jones talks about hitting the road in a 35-year-old camper during the COVID-19 pandemic. He compared Iowa’s 3 percent of public land with that of Arkansas.
“Somehow this state (Arkansas), with 30% less GDP, 10% fewer people and 15% less area, is able to afford 10 times more public land than Iowa,” Jones writes.
“ … If you’ve been to an Iowa park any time during the pandemic, you’ve seen the situation here in Iowa is disgraceful. All summer long, campgrounds, boat launches, the picnic areas and trails were busier than ever. Getting a weekend campsite was nearly impossible at times.”
Iowa agricultural groups, including the Farm Bureau, have lobbied for legislation to make it harder for Iowans to donate their land for public use and conservation.
In “They Break It, You Buy It,” Jones explains how taxpayers have paid billions of dollars for incentives to encourage farmers to adopt conservation practices to reduce harmful runoff when a few basic regulations — such as no application of fertilizer in the fall — would do the trick.
Jones and four other scientists published a paper in 2019 that showed farmers in two Western Iowa watersheds applied fertilizer at more than double the recommended rate, causing higher nitrate levels in streams there.
“The calculus on this is very simple: while the farmer absorbs the consequences of too little nitrogen, the public must absorb the consequences of too much, with these latter consequences being degraded water,” Jones writes in the book.
Jones’s most-read essay, “Iowa’s Real Population,” which got more than 7,000 page views after it was first published March 14, 2019, takes the amount of manure from Iowa farm animals and converts it into what would be produced by a human population. A map shows Iowa watersheds with enough manure to match the human populations of New York City, Paris and Los Angeles.
The essays often use analogies to help non-scientists understand the scale of water quality challenges. Jones often mixes in puns, jokes and cultural references like “Fifty Shades of Brown,” the title of an essay about Iowa’s animal population compared with other states.
“I do try to inject humor into almost all of them,” Jones said. The humor provides a bit of a buffer against opponents, he said. And there are a fair number of opponents — or at least people who disagree with some of his opinions.
In 2021, Iowa Rep. Chad Ingels, R-Randalia, wrote to UI officials, including the then-director of IIHR, to complain about an opinion piece Jones wrote for Civil Eats saying low-income and minority Iowans are disproportionately affected by poor water quality.
Ingels disagreed with the implication that farmers are racist for not doing more to improve water quality, he told The Gazette in 2021.
Even some people who agree with Jones don’t always like his tone. But Jones doesn’t apologize.
“When I hear people say I’m too caustic or sardonic, I always know they haven’t read Aldo …” Jones writes in the introduction to the book. He’s referring to Aldo Leopold, a Burlington native world-renowned for his work as a conservationist, educator and writer. The Leopold Center of Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University is named after the man who died 1948.
“At times I am almost ashamed to admit that this book exists largely because so many can’t bring themselves to say that grass is green, and the sky is blue. At least not in public, anyway,” Jones writes.
“Swine Republic” likely won’t be Jones’s last book. He’d like to write about the Driftless area, a topographical region in southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and the extreme northwest corner of Illinois.
Ice Cube Press will host a book release event for Chris Jones’s “Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality” at 7 p.m. May 19 at Prairie Lights in Iowa City.
People who order the book from icecubepress.com now will receive signed copies with their orders. The book also will be available for sale at Prairie Lights, Barnes & Noble, Ice Cube Press website and other sites, including Amazon.
www.thegazette.com
He decided to start writing about why many of Iowa’s lakes aren’t safe for swimming and about rivers and streams whisking soil and harmful levels of nutrients downstream.
“For me to rationalize being a public employee, if I couldn’t get them better water quality, I could at least give them the truth about it,” Jones said in an interview with The Gazette. “The environmental problems we have here are not unique to Iowa. What is unique to Iowa, I think, is the death grip the industry and the culture of agriculture has on the discourse about these problems.”
Advertisement
Jones, whose wry, often-provocative essays have appeared on a UI blog since 2015, now has written a book called “Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality.” The book, which includes 69 essays — including several new to readers — goes on sale May 19 through Ice Cube Press.
Early work for ag sector
Jones retires from the UI on May 16 after eight years. He was paid $126,631 last fiscal year, state records show.
Before coming to the university, Jones, 62, worked as a laboratory supervisor at Des Moines Water Works from 2003 to 2011 and then as an environmental scientist for the Iowa Soybean Association from 2011 to 2015.
His work at the UI includes studying how nitrate and phosphorus wash from farm fields into waterways. Over the years, he’s overseen water sensors installed on Iowa’s streams and rivers to measure nitrate loads and concentration.
Sensor data feed directly into the Iowa Water Quality Information System, which has an interactive map online.
Nitrates in drinking water have been linked to cancer, rashes, hair loss, birth defects and other health problems, including infant methemoglobinemia, or blue baby syndrome. High levels of nitrate and phosphorus spur growth of toxic algae, which has been an ongoing problem at some Iowa beaches.
“This is a quality-of-life issue for people,” Jones said. “We see people who vacation in Minnesota or Colorado. We could have those types of experiences here in Iowa if we were able to clean up our act.”
Essays tackle public land, farm incentives, manure
In his essay called “No Country For Old Men,” included in “Swine Republic,” Jones talks about hitting the road in a 35-year-old camper during the COVID-19 pandemic. He compared Iowa’s 3 percent of public land with that of Arkansas.
“Somehow this state (Arkansas), with 30% less GDP, 10% fewer people and 15% less area, is able to afford 10 times more public land than Iowa,” Jones writes.
“ … If you’ve been to an Iowa park any time during the pandemic, you’ve seen the situation here in Iowa is disgraceful. All summer long, campgrounds, boat launches, the picnic areas and trails were busier than ever. Getting a weekend campsite was nearly impossible at times.”
Iowa agricultural groups, including the Farm Bureau, have lobbied for legislation to make it harder for Iowans to donate their land for public use and conservation.
In “They Break It, You Buy It,” Jones explains how taxpayers have paid billions of dollars for incentives to encourage farmers to adopt conservation practices to reduce harmful runoff when a few basic regulations — such as no application of fertilizer in the fall — would do the trick.
Jones and four other scientists published a paper in 2019 that showed farmers in two Western Iowa watersheds applied fertilizer at more than double the recommended rate, causing higher nitrate levels in streams there.
“The calculus on this is very simple: while the farmer absorbs the consequences of too little nitrogen, the public must absorb the consequences of too much, with these latter consequences being degraded water,” Jones writes in the book.
Jones’s most-read essay, “Iowa’s Real Population,” which got more than 7,000 page views after it was first published March 14, 2019, takes the amount of manure from Iowa farm animals and converts it into what would be produced by a human population. A map shows Iowa watersheds with enough manure to match the human populations of New York City, Paris and Los Angeles.
'Caustic or sardonic’
The essays often use analogies to help non-scientists understand the scale of water quality challenges. Jones often mixes in puns, jokes and cultural references like “Fifty Shades of Brown,” the title of an essay about Iowa’s animal population compared with other states.
“I do try to inject humor into almost all of them,” Jones said. The humor provides a bit of a buffer against opponents, he said. And there are a fair number of opponents — or at least people who disagree with some of his opinions.
In 2021, Iowa Rep. Chad Ingels, R-Randalia, wrote to UI officials, including the then-director of IIHR, to complain about an opinion piece Jones wrote for Civil Eats saying low-income and minority Iowans are disproportionately affected by poor water quality.
Ingels disagreed with the implication that farmers are racist for not doing more to improve water quality, he told The Gazette in 2021.
Even some people who agree with Jones don’t always like his tone. But Jones doesn’t apologize.
“When I hear people say I’m too caustic or sardonic, I always know they haven’t read Aldo …” Jones writes in the introduction to the book. He’s referring to Aldo Leopold, a Burlington native world-renowned for his work as a conservationist, educator and writer. The Leopold Center of Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University is named after the man who died 1948.
“At times I am almost ashamed to admit that this book exists largely because so many can’t bring themselves to say that grass is green, and the sky is blue. At least not in public, anyway,” Jones writes.
“Swine Republic” likely won’t be Jones’s last book. He’d like to write about the Driftless area, a topographical region in southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and the extreme northwest corner of Illinois.
‘Swine Republic’ book release May 19
Ice Cube Press will host a book release event for Chris Jones’s “Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality” at 7 p.m. May 19 at Prairie Lights in Iowa City.
People who order the book from icecubepress.com now will receive signed copies with their orders. The book also will be available for sale at Prairie Lights, Barnes & Noble, Ice Cube Press website and other sites, including Amazon.
With ‘Swine Republic,’ Chris Jones continues to stir the pot
Chris Jones, whose wry, often-provocative essays have appeared on a University of Iowa blog since 2015, now has written a book called “Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality.” The book, which includes 55 essays -- including several new to readers -- goes on...
www.thegazette.com
