"In the nation’s leading pork-producing state, animal waste fuels crop growth but impairs water quality in a leaky circular system."
"During planting season in Iowa, Landon Plagge’s fields reek. Sour and earthy, almost like rotten eggs and fermenting hay, the scent repels the unacquainted nose. But Plagge is unbothered.
“I’m used to it,” he said, laughing. “I’m immersed in shit, I guess.”
In addition to the soy, corn, oats and rye he grows on his family farm in northern Iowa, Plagge operates a 10,000-head confined hog feeding facility, one of more than 4,000 large concentrated animal feeding operations in the state. Those hogs, he said, produce 3 million gallons of liquid manure each year.
He puts that waste to use, spreading it across his fields to act as fertilizer—and buying chicken, cattle and hog manure from nearby livestock facilities so his 4,000 acres of farmland have enough nutrients."
Anika Jane Beamer reports for Inside Climate News July 21, 2025.
Advertisement 
