Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat / Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Roundup / About Julie
Editors Note: This post includes audio (above) and video (below) recordings of the conversation. The transcript is also posted.
Our Potluck guest, Liz Garst, said a typical rain gauge sold in an Iowa hardware store measures up to 7” of precipitation. In northwest Iowa last week, rainfall was up to 10-15” in some areas, creating devasting flooding, eroding Iowa’s topsoil even further.
Weather events like the 1993 Iowa floods were called 100-year events. Of course, that was just 30 years ago, and here we are again, facing flooding in parts of northwest Iowa that some say is worse than 1993.
Thanks to farming practices, drought, intense rain, national policies incentivizing soil-killing land stewardship, and the ‘ag college,’ Iowa State University, ignoring a very real crisis at hand, our guest, who is a farmer, a banker, and a conservationist, says we have little time remaining to save Iowa’s main differentiator - the land that feeds the world.
After our call on Monday, I heard from participants that the conversation was riveting, frightening, and inspiring.
Even if you don’t listen to podcasts, hear this one. Please. And share it widely.
Liz grew up in one of Iowa’s most famous families, the daughter of Steve and Mary Garst, the granddaughter of Roswell and Elizabeth Garst, and the niece of John Chrystal, depicted in a bronze bust in the World Food Prize headquarters.
This progressive and worldly lineage shaped her global perspective, which was solidified in her experiences serving in the Peace Corps and at the World Bank, as well as her personal travel.
Today's participants on our call included pollster J. Ann Selzer, who recently visited the Whiterock Conservancy, land donated by the Garst family, to demonstrate conservation and sustainable farming practices. She shared her screen and included pictures from Liz Garst's tour demonstrating how the all-important cover crops work, as well as another photo showing the difference between land benefiting from sustainable practices versus land that was not.
I don’t want to spoil the discussion by reporting it in detail, so please listen. Our participants asked fabulous questions, and I also called on
, our Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnist in Washington, D.C., to offer his observations about the lack of a U.S. Farm Bill and what that means. Crop insurance and farm subsidies are big-ticket budget items.“The taxpayer is paying an enormous amount of money to farmers right now,” said Liz. “It’s offensive. They say farmers need more money, while we will give less to people who need food! The other half of the Farm Bill is the SNAP program, so should we increase subsidies to farmers at the expense of poor people who don’t have enough food?!”
Is there a solution to this catastrophic loss of life-creating topsoil?
“I want the taxpayer to wake up and say, ‘What are we getting for the $9 billion we’re giving to farmers?’ Cancer? Filthy water? We don’t have safe beaches in Iowa… And we’re not getting a future because our topsoil is washing away.”
It is time, says Liz Garst, for taxpayers to rise up.
Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat
Are you a procrastinator? Me too. So, take it from me: don’t wait to enroll in the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat.
Everyone has a story, and we are coming together from September 22 to 25 to help you tell yours—if you show up.
Be there or be square.
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
On the last Friday of the month, Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members gather on a Zoom call to chat with paid subscribers who want to speak. It’s a thank-you to those who support us financially. We always want to keep this content free because we hope to share stories and commentary that matter in shaping conversations. But we rely on those who can afford to pay to help pay the bills.
Below, behind a paywall, is the Zoom link for Friday’s call starting at noon. Thank you so much for being a part of our team.
We added two new members to the team last week!
and . Please check them out and give ‘em the old IWC welcome:
Liz Garst says it is time for a taxpayer revolt