9 comments

  • nozzlegear 2 days ago ago

    I live in Iowa and can vouch that conversation around cancer rates, nitrates and pesticides has intensified over the last year, along with our legislature's inaction on the whole thing. Not mentioned in this article were the two bills that have been pushed through the state senate twice now, which would've prevented Iowans from filing lawsuits against pesticide and herbicide companies for failing to warn about cancer risks if those companies follow the EPA's labeling guidelines.

    The primary lobby of those bills was the pesticide giant Bayer (who bought and absorbed Monsanto) with backing from several of Iowa's industrial farming organizations. They launched a giant ad campaign to "control weeds, not farming" alongside their bill to influence opinions.

    • faangguyindia a day ago ago

      Which is the largest dafacenter in Iowa? Google cloud platform?

      • nozzlegear a day ago ago

        I couldn't say off the top of my head, but Google's datacenter is the only one that I'm personally familiar with.

    • none2585 2 days ago ago

      Republicans hold a majority in the state house, the state Senate, and control the executive branch. Trump won by 13.2 percentage points.

      You get what you deserve.

      • nozzlegear a day ago ago

        My voting record since 2008 has been Obama, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Harris. What do you think it is that I deserve?

        • none2585 a day ago ago

          Sorry I didn't mean YOU you, I meant the "royal you". As in we collectively in this country get what we democratically elected - myself included.

          The American people have happily voted against their interests and we can blame no one but ourselves (again, collectively).

      • burnt-resistor a day ago ago

        You're advocating for collective punishment / victim blaming, and bigoted treatment of people as a uniform hivemind. That's the tao of divided-and-conquered mindset that doesn't help anyone. The only historical and perpetual enemy of the people is a small cadre of ultra rich, their politicians, and their lobbyists.

  • iAMkenough 2 days ago ago

    Governor says “regulation is hardly ever the answer” for Iowa’s dangerous nitrate levels in its drinking water.

  • burnt-resistor a day ago ago

    Remember that most bread in America including several major organic brands (Dave’s Killer Bread) include pesticide residues from 10 to 1000+ ppb. And then there are dough conditioners and preservative chemicals banned in Europe. There's only a few brands that test clean.

    Also, non-organic oats are typically harvested by first spraying RoundUp (glyphosate) on them to dry out so farmers can use slightly less diesel to harvest them while fucking over the consumer's health.

    More details of various tested products for glyphosate concentrations (doesn't represent a permanent rating because sources and suppliers change and there's about zero real surveillance): https://mamavation.com/food/glyphosate-bread-oats-legumes-pr...

    Food in America is largely a minefield with some difficult-to-avoid hazards.