Farm groups launch new water quality alliance

Iowa farm groups today announced the launch of a new water quality alliance to accelerate the pace and scale of "quantifiable water quality improvements."

The Iowa Corn Growers, Iowa Soybean and Iowa Pork Producers associations are each providing $200,000 annually to support the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, said Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association, during a

press conference that featured Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Bill Northey, Iowa's secretary of agriculture.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a group that's advocated for stricter regulation of livestock operations, quickly criticized the initiative.

"The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy will not lead to real improvements in Iowa's polluted water quality unless and until it is strengthened with measurable and enforceable water quality standards and tougher and more effective public oversight," said member Larry Ginter, a Rhodes, Ia., farmer.

"That's the bottom line, and all the corporate ag PR campaigns in the world isn't going to change that very basic fact," he said in a statement.

The farm groups tapped Sean McMahon as the alliance's executive director. He directs the Nature Conservancy's North American agriculture program and has led national land stewardship campaigns at the National Wildlife Federation.

The alliance is expected to increase farmers' awareness of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy and increase their adoption of practices that have environmental benefits; support Iowa State University and other partners' efforts in developing environmental performance metrics; and attract "significant funding from public and private sources" to the state's water quality improvement initiative.

Leeds said he expects the new group will attract "tens of millions of dollars" annually to conservation, research and developing water quality improvement metrics.

The alliance will look to large agriculture and food corporations, private foundations and government programs to accelerate water quality issues in Iowa.

"This isn't another campaign about how farming is important. Iowans understand that agriculture is important," Leeds said. "This is about those practices, based on science and data, that lead to environmental and conservation improvement that's also economically and agronomically positive as well."

Leeds said farmers are beginning to adopt conservation efforts to improve water quality. "But we have to do better," he said. "If we just have farmers continue what they're already doing, we're not going to see the improvements in water quality and conservation practices that we want to see.

"Farmers need to become more aware that consumers and the public are watching and there's an increasing concern about the quality of water in Iowa and the impact that Iowa agriculture might have on it," said Leeds, who will serve as chairman of the new alliance's board. The new group will he housed at the soybean association's Ankeny headquarters.