Yesterday it was Jorge Elieser González Ochoa. Today it’s DMPS Superintendent Ian Roberts. This is unacceptable. Iowans deserve answers and accountability from federal authorities. We cannot stay silent as members of our community are being swept away without cause.

Told via internal DNR, EPA, and USDA communications, here’s what was likely going on that led to a dead pig pile-up at Seaboard Triumph Foods

The US food system is BROKEN. It is just disingenuous to argue that we have “cheap food” when labor and environmental conditions are so terrible and for so long without remedy. Another admittedly gross but excellent piece by @ninaelkadi.com .

In response to my prior reporting detailing the whistleblower’s original complaint, one DNR environmental engineer wrote in an internal email: “Wow. That’s a lot worse than I had pictured in my head. I never need to go there again.”

In a recent paper, University of Iowa professor @profsecchi.bsky.social finds that the current Census of Agriculture is neither complete nor accurate, and could skew federal research and investment.

This piece from @sentientmedia.org, @ninaelkadi.com and @iowapublicradio.org highlights a difficult tension ⬇️ Meat processing plants harm people's health, but are often communities' largest employers. Moving away from a corporate, highly consolidated food system could help address this issue.

When a realtor asked Merrill Cauble about selling his land to Innovative Livestock Services for their planned feedlot, he didn’t think about it: there was no way he would sell to the organizations he deems to be wreaking havoc on Kansas. @ninaelkadi.com reports:

So grateful for AI!

In regards to resident concerns about a new feedlot, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment wrote that they do not have the authority to evaluate the feedlot’s impact on “living conditions” or “general issues related to ‘quality of life.’” s/o to @plantnerd.bsky.social for amazing edits.

“…the pipeline for workplace safety research has burst.”

New @businessweek.bsky.social feature: On a budget of $1 per American, NIOSH conducts or funds most US research on how to keep workers alive & well. The Trump Administration decided to blow it up. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... Based on interviews with 40+ current/recent staff throughout NIOSH

Another great @ninaelkadi.com piece featuring work of Jennifer Jacquet & collaborators. Jennifer spot on notes that there's no talking about reducing herds: “That is the grand narrative, I think, that we are all operating under.” 💯 small science: redefine the policy landscape to benefit industry.

"The floor is lined with so many decomposed hogs that wooden walkways were placed over their bodies for employees to get across... One photo shows what appears to be animal waste seeping into the office." sentientmedia.org/iowa-pork-pl... @ninaelkadi.com

Hydrogen sulfide, the same gas that Steven Barrows — a whistleblower who worked at Seaboard Triumph Foods — was worried about, killed six employees at this Colorado dairy. great reporting on a horrific story by @kennytorrella.bsky.social

Molly O'Toole: "On way 1st day teaching journalism course on covering immigration, met by ICE in Mt.Pleasant at Lamont - agents appear to take father driving young daughter, likely to school. Agents shoving bystanders, daughter sobs it’s her fault-she’d seen car parked for 2hrs. Trump’s America"

“It doesn't matter how much powdered sugar you sprinkle on a pile of pig shit, you'll never turn it into a jelly donut.” via @ninaelkadi.com

“North Carolina farmer Craig Watts calls himself a ‘recovering factory farmer.’” “In 2014, Watts invited an animal welfare group to film the conditions within his concentrated animal feeding operations. Thus began his life as a whistleblower.” cornbeltconfidential.substack.com/p/fields-of-...

In case you're wondering how biodigesters are doing at saving the world: In Wisconsin, private equity convinced a tiny town to serve as a conduit for almost $42 million in municipal bonds. The massive project, developed tax-free, just missed their principal payment.

I mourn my fellow journalists murdered by Israel.

Six people were killed at a Colorado dairy in an accident that is being investigated as toxic gas exposure, officials said.

R2R @ 12!

The project was "pitched as an integrated solar and chicken farm, a new land use practice known as agrivoltaics. But agrivoltaics projects typically envision animals grazing underneath solar panels — not hundreds of thousands of confined chickens packed into sheds." sentientmedia.org/in-pa-a-prop...

Reported on a proposed agrivoltaics project where chickens live in CAFOs next to solar panels

There’s an important layer not mentioned here which is that RAGBRAI has to cater to Big Ag bc Big Ag dominates our state. Fall is for harvest, spring/early summer is for planting — it’s too busy on rural roads. Winter is obviously a no-go. That leaves July. Our state is a Big Ag “sacrifice zone.”

Hey, today is a really great day to become a paid subscriber to @51st.news

The McCloskeys run Fair Oaks Farms, an interactive “Dairy Disneyland” that also houses a factory farm with around 37k cows — producing enough milk for four million school milk cartons, every, single day, Frerick says in the documentary. New piece by @ninaelkadi.com

Takedown of those who pollute our water. open.substack.com/pub/cornbelt...

A new documentary series, “The Price of Milk,” details the influence the dairy checkoff has on American eating habits, from putting more dairy into foods at chains like Taco Bell, to ensuring milk is a part of public school meals. @ninaelkadi.com reports:

I just saw that my Substack is #38 "Rising in the Climate & Environment" category. Today I came out with an essay about the "bubbles" which aren't really bubbles, of course. Subscribing is free — hope to see you there.

Aquí en Español:

At an #Iowa Pork Plant, Piles of Dead Pigs and Wafting Sulphur Dioxide @ninaelkadi.com reports for @sentientmedia.org #news #environment #climatechange EJ Today Headlines: sej.org/headlines/list sentientmedia.org/iowa-pork-pl...

Des Moines Banned Lawn Watering, but Polluted Tap Water Keeps Flowing: Inside Iowa’s Nitrate Problem. Residents use the League's Nitrate Watch tools to monitor local drinking water - sentientmedia.org/inside-iowas...

Both stoked and saddened that Kenny cites my 2018 piece about humanewadshing at Fair Oaks. The situation has not gotten better since. online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica...

Last night I was at an event where someone told me that they only drink Fairlfie milk; Their employer stocks the company fridge w Core Power shakes. I’m still shocked that Fairlife has largely been able to maintain its public perception as “one of the good ones.” story by @kennytorrella.bsky.social

New from me: Illinois prisons are already crumbling, advocates are worried climate change & extreme heat could make it so much worse, “It’s not like heat makes prison unbearable, it’s that prison is unbearable and the heat makes it even worse,” insideclimatenews.org/news/2807202...

Some people in Des Moines testing their tap water are finding results as high as 20 mg/L (EPA safe drinking water limit is 10 mg/L...though even that is contested as safe). Des Moines Water Works did not respond to my request for comment.

According to one source, the facility has caused a strain on the city’s wastewater treatment. Read the investigation by @ninaelkadi.com: buff.ly/7Xqj8zI

Super cool opportunity!

Multiple groups including @foodandwater.bsky.social & @animallegaldefense.bsky.social filed a lawsuit today against the California Air Resources Board, claiming they’re “incentivizing the production of factory farm biogas…”

More efficiency = more start-ups, like this one, which aims to make leggings out of corn. Because we really need more uses for corn. For sure. Especially in Iowa. /s

Scathing report from Iowa about dead hogs piling up and what that inflicts on people at a Sioux City IA pork processing plant. Insider helps expose. Warning: unpleasant photos. sentientmedia.org/iowa-pork-pl... via @ninaelkadi.com @sentientmedia.org

At an Iowa pork plant, piles of dead pigs and wafting sulphur dioxide 🗞️

Recent Graduates Were Told They Were Coming to the U.S. for Cultural Exchange. They Ended Up Trapped in a Factory Farm. sentientmedia.org/cultural-exc...

MUST READ from @inn.org member newsroom @sentientmedia.org – "Although a U.S. firm owned by JBS made the single biggest donation to Trump’s inaugural campaign, the corporation is not immune to the effects of his policies." #ruralnews #nonprofitnews #climate #politics #immigration #factoryfarms

This story is blowing up on our site: 200 JBS workers in Iowa are losing U.S. work authorization. @sentientmedia.org was told that unless they qualify for another exemption, they’re being instructed to leave the U.S. immediately. sentientmedia.org/iowa-meatpac...

Important work by @ninaelkadi.com in @sentientmedia.org about a whistleblower who observed serious misconduct while working at a pork plant in Iowa. Among other things, the article clearly shows how fines for environmental violations can be insignificant. cc: @climatewhistles.bsky.social

Anaerobic digesters are expensive to maintain. If you don’t invest in upkeep, the results can be deadly, and in the case of Seaboard Triumph, extremely gruesome too. Shocking story reported by @ninaelkadi.com sentientmedia.org/iowa-pork-pl...

ICYMI: a former Seaboard Triumph Foods employee spoke to me about the horrifying conditions inside of the Sioux City, Iowa, pork processing facility. It's straight out of The Jungle. And the effects — including almost 2,000 hours of air quality violations — extend throughout the town.

At a July 15 city council meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa, Mayor Rick Johnson announced that JBS — the largest meat processor in the world — was issuing 200 notices to employees from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela that their work visas had been revoked. @ninaelkadi.com reports: