Iowa’s water quality has been a major focus in the run-up to electing the state’s next secretary of agriculture.
The two candidates believe in different approaches — with Democrat Chris Jones proposing more regulations and incumbent Republican Mike Naig strongly opposed, saying it would hurt small- and medium-sized farmers. Despite these differences, the candidates have some overlapping views on the value of local food and grass-fed cattle.
At Tim and Vickie Robbins’ farm, north of Scranton in Greene County, a dozen people sat on square haybales to listen to Mike Naig’s stump speech. The current secretary of agriculture is seeking a third term to lead the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and has served in the role since 2018, following nearly five years as deputy secretary.
Previously, Naig was the manager of government affairs for Monsanto and worked in public policy roles for the Iowa Biotechnology Association, Agribusiness Association of Iowa and CropLife America.
Acknowledging the livestock producers around him, Naig touted his experience leading the state’s response to animal disease outbreaks, like highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.
“If you get the wrong kind of leadership in the department, and those things aren't handled properly, that can literally have an effect on the amount of food that's on the grocery store shelf and the price that Americans and Iowans are paying,” Naig said. “It can also affect trade.”
Naig described how the agriculture department has taken a “farm to faucet approach” to address water quality issues in the state. That includes programs to help farmers add cover crops and edge-of-field infrastructure, like wetlands and saturated buffers, to filter nitrates.
Another program under the department of agriculture provides grants to towns and cities for projects designed to capture and treat stormwater.
Naig said more needs to be done to improve water quality in the state and that “every Iowan deserves clean water.” But he was proud of Iowa setting records for voluntary conservation adoption over the past five years and said additional funding from the Legislature last session will propel these efforts forward.
“There's never been more awareness, more funding, more resources available than there is today, and that didn't happen by accident,” Naig said. “What we need to continue to focus on is scaling that up and accelerating that work.”
Naig's Democratic opponent, however, believes this is the wrong approach.
At a campaign event in Fort Dodge, Jones said dropping millions of dollars here and there to treat polluted water is like putting Band-Aids on an underlying problem. He said it would be more efficient to reduce the sources of pollution by changing what agriculture looks like in Iowa.
The retired research scientist studied contaminant hydrology at the University of Iowa and managed a network of water quality sensors across the state. His career also includes running the testing laboratory at Des Moines Water Works and working as an environmental scientist at the Iowa Soybean Association.
Jones helped found the advocacy organization Driftless Water Defenders, and in 2023, he published The Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality.
“I realized that if I really wanted change, I was going to have to do something other than just write about this,” Jones said.
He said the secretary of agriculture is "key person" in Iowa's state government that can do something about water quality.
"That's why I chose to run for that office,” he added.
While the Iowa Department of Natural Resources regulates manure management plans and point sources of water pollution, the department of agriculture leads the state's voluntary conservation initiatives to reduce non-point sources.
Jones has called his campaign and the November election “a referendum” on water quality.
“People around Iowa are really frustrated with the condition of their water. They're ready for something different,” Jones said to about 30 people at a Fort Dodge campaign event in September.
Half of the assessed river and stream segments in Iowa are classified as impaired, as are nearly two-thirds of the tested segments of lakes and reservoirs, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ 2026 draft list. Causes for listing can include high levels of E. coli, algal growth, fish kills and turbidity.
Public drinking water providers in the Des Moines area and some smaller communities have also struggled with high nitrate concentrations from their source waters, especially over the last two summers.
And more Iowans are talking about the state’s growing cancer rate and how polluted water and other environmental risk factors could be contributing.
A survey commissioned by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future found 60% of 800 likely Iowa voters chose drinking water quality and the environment as one of their top five most important issues.
Many factors can affect local water pollution. But reports like the Central Iowa Source Water Resource Assessment and Environmental Risk Factors and Iowa's Cancer Crisis identify agriculture as the main driver at the watershed- and state-level, due in part to its scale.
Farming accounts for around 85% of Iowa’s land use, and most of those acres are dedicated to growing corn and soybeans. Along with inputs like fertilizer and pesticides, conventional corn and soybean fields are bare half of the year, without cover crops. Naked fields are more vulnerable to erosion and rain flushing nutrients into waterways.
Iowa also has more concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) than any other state, which generate large volumes of manure.
Jones said Iowa’s water quality cannot improve unless farms become more diverse. That includes more small grains, like oats, along with alfalfa, vegetable crops and orchards. Jones also wants to see more cattle on pasture, which provides a perennial cover on the landscape.
“The biggest challenge is, we have a system here in Iowa where all our institutions and our infrastructure is aligned with corn, soy, CAFO and ethanol,” Jones said.
Jones has proposed a two-pronged approach to change that system. One is creating “off ramps” for conventional farmers. State programs could offer training and compensation to farmers over several years as they shift to growing food for local consumers, he said.
“If you’re a farmer, you don’t just wake up one morning and decide you’re going to grow oats,” Jones said. “The machinery that you have, your life schedules and everything is aligned with corn and soy.”
The second prong is what Jones calls “common sense regulations,” like banning fall tillage — a practice that increases risks for erosion and nutrient loss — and taxing anhydrous ammonia sales in the fall to encourage farmers to wait until the spring to apply fertilizer.
But incumbent secretary Naig said more regulations and taxes would cause harm.
“We know when you add that kind of cost and you add that kind of regulatory pressure to farms, it's the smaller farms and the mid-sized farms that can't bear that burden,” Naig said at his campaign event in Greene County. “What you end up with is further consolidation, taking us exactly the wrong direction. That is a shrinking agriculture, not a growing agriculture, with all the opportunity that I know that we see.”
Naig also criticized Jones for “unflattering things” he has said about farmers.
“These are quotes: ‘Farmers are a bunch of rich old white guys. Farming's not all that difficult. Farmers really only work a couple weeks a year,’” Naig said.
Following the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair, Jones said his quotes have been taken out of context. At The Gazette's Iowa Ideas 2021 conference, Jones said:
“These farmers might be industrious and they might be ingenious and all these other adjectives you want to say about it, but the truth is, a lot of them are millionaires; they’re really wealthy guys. They’re making three times as much as the average Iowan. And a lot of this grain farming now, it’s not that hard. They’re only working a few weeks out of the year. And so why are we continuously asked to subsidize and indemnify this activity and then to pay to remediate the pollution?”
Ethanol debate
The candidates also disagree on ethanol.
Naig said he has been a strong advocate for federal changes to allow E15 — a fuel blend made from 15% corn-based ethanol and 85% standard gasoline — to be sold year-round across the U.S. Iowa is the top producing state of corn and ethanol.
Jones has called ethanol as an environmental and economic “dead end.”
“We need to plan strategically for what’s going to come after ethanol. We know demand for liquid fuels is going to decline,” Jones said at a candidate forum organized by Food & Water Action.
A study prepared for the Iowa Corn Growers Association and Iowa Renewable Fuels Association earlier this year predicted a growing gap between supply and demand for corn unless new markets for low-carbon marine fuel and sustainable aviation fuel take off.
Expanding other markets abroad and at home
Another of Naig’s ongoing priorities is expanding and diversifying international markets for Iowa farmers and livestock producers. Iowa ranks second in the U.S. in terms of the total value of agricultural exports. Naig has led trade missions abroad and received delegations from around the world in Iowa.
“Trade's a relationship business,” Naig said.
For markets closer to home, Naig highlighted the expansion of Choose Iowa since its launch three years ago. The state’s branding and marketing program promotes food, beverages and agricultural products that are grown, raised or made in Iowa.
“I'm hearing lots of stories of farm families and folks that are saying this is a way that the next generation is going to be able to stay involved in our operation,” Naig said.
Along with a directory to help connect Iowans to nearly 360 Choose Iowa members across the state, the program offers grants for schools and food banks to purchase local food and for small-scale dairies, meat processors and other operations to buy equipment.
Naig said the department is hiring a coordinator to help producers scale up for large buyers, like grocery stores.
Jones said Choose Iowa is a “great” program but needs more funding to be impactful. He proposed setting a 10-year goal for Iowa schools to source half of the food served to students from Iowa farms. Jones estimates it would be possible with an annual $10 million budget for the state program.
“To me, that does not sound like a huge amount of money because we have given gas stations in Iowa $70 million for gas pumps for E10 and E15 fuels,” Jones said.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program has allocated more than $72 million to install or upgrade equipment since 2006.
Growing grazing
Both candidates said they support more grazing cattle in Iowa.
Naig highlighted the state’s Cattle and Conservation Working Lands program, describing it as “wildly popular,” with more than 1,100 producers enrolled.
The program began as a pilot project in Taylor County in 2016 and recently expanded to 28 counties. It provides financial and technical assistance to farmers to convert low-yielding or highly erodible acres of row crops into pasture or hay ground.
Naig said over 16,000 acres have been converted.
“The whole point is that we're taking those marginal acres out of production, which is an environmental benefit, but we're also creating an opportunity for more cattle, which has got an economic return,” Naig said.
Partly due to due to drought that affected grazing lands in the West, the national herd size has fallen seven consecutive years and hit a 75-year low in January.
Beef prices have been a bright spot in a farm economy, where average production costs for corn, soybeans and other commodity crops continue to outpace revenue.
Naig and Jones both said profitability is a big concern for many farmers across the state, with high input costs and diesel fuel. Jones added that many face elevated health insurance rates for Affordable Care Act policies.
Voters will weigh in on these issues and decide the next secretary of agriculture with the upcoming midterm election. Absentee voting in Iowa begins Oct. 14. Election Day is Nov. 3.
