Misguided farm policy has cost the United States taxpayer over $400 billion over the past seven years and most of that went to a few farmers that employ highly extractive methods that are destroying both their land and our water resources to produce way more corn than we need.

Ethanol is a by-product of farmers raising too much of a good thing. It is a false solution to our problems and continued support of corn-based ethanol will only serve to exacerbate our problems. Overproduction of corn is a misuse of Iowa’s most valuable natural resources– its soil and its water. Tillage, along with tiling, of the ground has already started to disrupt our water cycle and there are now portions of this once water rich state that have to irrigate their crops. Over 95% of the corn raised in Iowa is used for ethanol production and animal feed. Ethanol and livestock are water intensive industries. Iowa’s aquifers are being drained by them at the same time that its groundwater is being rendered unusable by runoff from our fields. There is evidence that once great civilizations existed in what is now the Sahara–until they ran out of water. Is this really the direction we wish to go? Iowa is naturally wet, unlike the Sahara, but that does not mean that man’s actions cannot change it. The situation in California should be making Iowa’s farmers feel uneasy.

Ethanol will help farmers out in the short run by providing a market and a justification for the overproduction of corn. But it is, at best, a temporary solution to a long term problem–a bit like applying a tourniquet. It will stop the bleeding—but, if left in place too long, the limb will be lost. Taxpayer money should not be expended on acquiring farm ground though eminent domain in order to install a pipeline to sequester a by-product of ethanol production–which is, in turn, a by-product of misguided agricultural and energy policy. Public money should be spent on the public good, and right now that means reworking the farm bill so that it serves to help us transition to a more sustainable food system. Reach out to your legislators and our governor and ask them to put a halt to the construction pipeline. And then take a bit of time and look at what is happening with the farm bill.