{"id":914547,"date":"2026-06-21T20:13:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/a-water-crisis-has-the-poster-boys-of-iowa-farming-ready-to-talk-regulation\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T20:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T01:13:26","slug":"a-water-crisis-has-the-poster-boys-of-iowa-farming-ready-to-talk-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/a-water-crisis-has-the-poster-boys-of-iowa-farming-ready-to-talk-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Water Crisis Has The \u2018Poster Boys\u2019 of Iowa Farming Ready to Talk Regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa\u2014James Hepp is sick of excuses.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old farmer manages about 1,600 acres of corn, soy and small grains in northern Iowa. He keeps a close eye on his bottom line and says he wants to build a business that his three young children would be foolish not to join. For Hepp, a first-generation farmer, that means doing things differently from his neighbors.<\/p>\n

In an effort to preserve soil health, he tills only narrow strips of land, leaving much of his field undisturbed. Hepp also avoids applying nitrogen fertilizer when he\u2019s not growing crops.<\/p>\n

At first, Hepp\u2019s approach to farming focused on cutting costs. It let him make fewer passes with the tractor, saving money by using less diesel, herbicides and fertilizer. The benefits for soil and water quality were a bonus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after more than a decade of hearing government agencies and ag commodity groups in Iowa urge farmers to fall in line with the state\u2019s voluntary Nutrient Reduction Strategy and adopt conservation practices that could limit the nitrogen and phosphorus runoff fouling waterways, Hepp is fed up with inaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the Nutrient Reduction Strategy has been around for what, 13 years now?\u201d said Hepp, often held up as a role model for his runoff-reducing efforts. \u201cIf you\u2019re not doing it now, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to make you do it besides regulation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hepp represents one-third of the \u201cLobe Rangers,\u201d a trio of corn and soy growers in Iowa\u2019s flat and fertile Des Moines Lobe who have taken to social media to highlight the enormous gap between the conservation goals outlined in Iowa\u2019s strategy for nutrient loss and the actual adoption of conservation practices on cropland. Fifth-generation farmers Matthew Bormann and Zack Smith round out the squad.<\/p>\n

Bormann, Hepp and Smith are hardly the first Iowans to call for policies that target the environmental footprint of a relatively unregulated industry. Regulation has been a rallying cry in the last year for environmental groups, politicians and citizens<\/a> who fear the state\u2019s poor water quality could be linked to its rising cancer rates.<\/p>\n

But as award-winning farmers and former county Farm Bureau board members who\u2019ve made a living growing thousands of acres of Iowa\u2019s two biggest commodity crops, Bormann, Hepp and Smith represent a different demographic in the reform camp: industry insiders.<\/p>\n

In March, the men began posting short videos to Facebook<\/a> demonstrating regenerative practices at work on their farms and calling for policy interventions to improve water quality. Their posts quickly gained traction on social media feeds across the state.<\/p>\n

As Iowa grapples with a worsening clean-water crisis fueled by agricultural pollution, the Lobe Rangers see themselves as proof that regulation won\u2019t herald the downfall of Iowa farmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing this and it works,\u201d Hepp said. \u201cLike, what do you mean that you can\u2019t afford to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Iowa Lags on Farm Conservation Progress\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last year, farmers in Iowa grew nearly 3 billion bushels of corn and 600 million bushels of soybeans. That\u2019s enough grain to fill over 7,000 miles of railcars, a train that could stretch from the U.S. East to West coast twice over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer that farmers are applying in the state have unwanted consequences, often leaching off fields to fuel algal blooms or unsafe nitrate levels in the state\u2019s waterways before traveling south and harming the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Iowa unveiled its Nutrient Reduction Strategy as a set of guidelines to stem the flow of chemicals from farmland into waterways and public drinking water sources. Since its inception, as in most agricultural states, the strategy has relied strictly on voluntary farm conservation efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State programs and federal grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture offer financial incentives and technical support for farmers who adopt conservation practices, like planting cover crops or adding buffer strips along waterways on their farms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and state Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig doubled down on those incentives in a legislative package<\/a> revealed in early May, which includes an additional $52 million to expand on-farm conservation in central Iowa and $100 million for public water treatment infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\"On
On his farm in northern Iowa, James Hepp plants cover crops after each harvest. Last year, only 17 percent of Iowa\u2019s farmland was cover cropped, compared to the 60 percent coverage the state estimates it needs to meaningfully reduce nutrient loads in waterways. Credit: Anika Jane Beamer\/Inside Climate News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Critics, including the Lobe Rangers, say the favored voluntary approach has done little to improve Iowa\u2019s water quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want clean water. If that\u2019s the case, we need to have policy that gives us a mathematical chance of that happening,\u201d said Smith, sheltering in his farm shop before a spring storm. \u201cWe don\u2019t have anything close to that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scenarios outlined in the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy in 2013 estimated that at least 60 percent of the state\u2019s cropland would need to be planted with cover crops in the off-season to meet the state\u2019s goal of 45 percent less nitrogen and phosphorus in major waterways by 2035. Yet last year, only about 17 percent of the state\u2019s corn and soy fields were planted with cover crops.<\/p>\n

That discrepancy isn\u2019t talked about enough, said Bormann, a former president of his county Farm Bureau and winner of a \u201cYoung Farmer Achievement Award\u201d from the Iowa Farm Bureau in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it\u2019s easy to stick your head in the sand, because there\u2019s no consequences, you know,\u201d Bormann said. But Iowans must \u201cstart talking about it,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to make agriculture better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Not Radical. It\u2019s Common Sense\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While the Lobe Rangers\u2019 posts often spark conversations among farmers in the comments, they aren\u2019t trying to win over their peers, Hepp said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the men are running their social media campaign to target politicians, political candidates and the voting public.<\/p>\n

The three farmers think they are a valuable resource for lawmakers who fear hurting, or being accused of hurting, Iowa agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not tree huggers. We\u2019re \u2026 farmers and, you know, we\u2019re actually doing it. We\u2019re actually doing it to scale,\u201d Bormann said. \u201cWe can tell you what works, what doesn\u2019t, what it\u2019s actually going to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many of the organizations that have historically drawn attention to Iowa\u2019s clean water crisis are \u201cleft-leaning groups\u201d that get discounted because of their political bent or advocacy history, Smith said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really unfortunate, because it doesn\u2019t mean their ideas aren\u2019t good,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So when the Lobe Rangers penned an op-ed in the Des Moines Register<\/a> in April, calling on state legislators to restore funding to a water quality sensor network <\/a>that\u2019s relied on philanthropic grants since 2023, Smith thought the men needed to note their political affiliations: two Republicans and one independent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sort of thing doesn\u2019t get said by Republicans,\u201d Smith said. \u201cEven if you think it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want [politicians] to know that there is a group of farmers that know we have a problem, and that there are solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In their mission to connect with political candidates, they\u2019ve found common ground with Chris Jones, a career water scientist and Democrat running an underdog campaign<\/a> for state secretary of agriculture. For years, Jones has been an unflinching advocate of regulatory fixes for nutrient pollution.<\/p>\n

His 28-point policy solution for cleaner water includes a ban on fall tillage of cropland, taxation or restrictions on the use of fertilizer and manure, and a requirement that rented farmland be planted with cover crops at the owner\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very important that we see that mainstream farmers can do it right,\u201d Jones told Inside Climate News. \u201cThese guys, they show that you can survive by doing different things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones regularly reposts the Lobe Rangers\u2019 videos to his campaign Facebook page. \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing could be perceived as somewhat radical,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom my perspective, it\u2019s not radical. It\u2019s common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle Poster Boys\u201d Depict Puffed-Up Progress<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Though they now have nearly 3,000 Facebook followers, none of the Lobe Rangers are particularly keen influencers. They\u2019ve sought video-editing help from Smith\u2019s college-aged daughters and developed their logo (a sort of Zorro and Lone Ranger hybrid, standing among stalks of corn with his sword drawn) using AI.<\/p>\n

But the men aren\u2019t entirely new to being spokesmen for the agricultural industry.<\/p>\n

Each has been the subject of glowing profiles about their use of regenerative practices, written and shared by trade groups such as the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Farm Bureau.<\/p>\n

When industry leaders highlight the conservation efforts of just one or two farmers, it sends the wrong message about the reality of Iowa agriculture, Bormann said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a PR thing where it makes it sound like Iowa farmers are doing such practices,\u201d Bormann said. \u201cAnd the truth is, they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Matthew
Matthew Bormann wants the Lobe Rangers to draw attention to the massive gap between the conservation goals outlined in Iowa\u2019s strategy for nutrient loss and the actual adoption of conservation practices on cropland. Credit: Anika Jane Beamer\/Inside Climate News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just last year, Hepp received the Iowa Farm Bureau\u2019s Young Farmer Leadership award. Now, his relationship with the group, which favors the current voluntary nutrient-pollution efforts, has cooled off. \u201cWe\u2019ve kind of got our heads on the chopping block,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an email to Inside Climate News, the Iowa Farm Bureau affirmed its ongoing support for Hepp.<\/p>\n

The group invited him to upcoming farm bureau meetings and a July economic summit, a spokesperson wrote. And last summer, farm bureau staff attended a conservation field day on Hepp\u2019s farm \u201cin support of his efforts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe value the opportunity to share a range of perspectives and practices that help farmers learn from one another,\u201d the organization wrote.<\/p>\n

Many farmers in Iowa\u2019s aging agricultural economy are fearful of change, Hepp said. Adopting conservation practices is tantamount to admitting you were wrong.<\/p>\n

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This story is funded by readers like you.<\/h3>\n

Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n

Donate Now<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And landlords, who controlled nearly 60 percent of Iowa\u2019s farmland in 2022, are often just as wary, restricting tenant farmers from implementing practices shown to improve soil health and water quality.<\/p>\n

Since launching the Lobe Rangers Facebook page, Hepp said dozens of farmers have reached out privately to express their support, saying their landlords or parents won\u2019t let them abandon conventional practices.<\/p>\n

After each harvest, Hepp plants rows of rye, camelina and triticale cover crops that grow into bright green tufts, locking nutrients in place and preventing erosion. Most Iowa farmers don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s farmers like Bormann, Hepp and Smith\u2014younger men with the privilege of making their own management decisions\u2014who get profiles written about them by industry groups. Their efforts to preserve water quality and soil health represent a small sliver of a much larger picture, one in which change is rarely rewarded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can make it seem like everybody\u2019s doing this,\u201d Hepp said of industry groups. \u201cBecause they keep having their little poster boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Price of Doing Business\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In an effort to highlight solutions, not just problems, Bormann, Hepp and Smith have suggested that lawmakers levy use fees on farms that apply nitrogen fertilizer in the fall, outside the growing season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when many Iowa farmers opt to fertilize their fields, taking advantage of drier conditions and slightly more time to do the work, said Richard Roth, assistant professor of integrated crop management and a nitrogen science specialist at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.<\/p>\n

However, if farmers don\u2019t follow best management practices when applying fall nitrogen, like waiting for soil temperatures to drop and using an inhibitor to maintain the stability of the ammonia molecule, there may be a heightened risk of nutrient loss to waterways or the atmosphere, Roth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A financial disincentive could outweigh the convenience of fall application, Smith said. Revenue generated from those fees could then fund incentives and technical support for farmers transitioning to in-season nitrogen management, without requiring more taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

The fall nitrogen disincentive would offer a way to \u201cinternalize the external costs that we\u2019re currently ignoring,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWhen we talk about the price of doing business, we don\u2019t recognize the cost of cancer, or the nitrate removal facility, or of not being able to fish or go swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Seed
Seed corn in Zack Smith\u2019s workshop awaits planting earlier this spring. Credit: Anika Jane Beamer\/Inside Climate News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Smith
Smith farms in Winnebago County, near the Iowa-Minnesota border. \u201cPeople want clean water. If that\u2019s the case, we need to have policy that gives us a mathematical chance of that happening,\u201d he said. Credit: Anika Jane Beamer\/Inside Climate News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But targeting fall nitrogen as the Lobe Rangers propose may not be the best way to stem nutrient loss into waterways, Roth said.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Iowa scientists modeled different scenarios to develop recommendations for the state\u2019s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. At the time, they estimated that the timing of nitrogen application had a minor impact on total nutrient loss.<\/p>\n

Shifting all fall-applied nitrogen to the spring wouldn\u2019t have as big an impact on overall nitrate loss as other practices like cover cropping, building wetlands and removing less productive land from crop rotation would, Roth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that the answer is going to lie strictly in nitrogen management,\u201d Roth said. \u201cI think it could help. <\/strong>But I think that there\u2019s these other, way more effective practices that could be employed that could help reach the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

There may be no smoking gun practice, but after decades of opt-in conservation opportunities, Hepp doesn\u2019t see farmers changing their ways if policy doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Of course, in social media videos, he avoids the word \u201cregulation\u201d in favor of terms like \u201cincentives,\u201d \u201cdisincentives\u201d or \u201cbroad-acre policy.\u201d Still, Hepp\u2019s a straight shooter by nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate saying the \u2018R\u2019 word, but, you know, ag is really underregulated,\u201d Hepp said. <\/strong>\u201cI\u2019m a farmer. It\u2019s dumb for me to say that out loud, but it\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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About This Story<\/h2>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

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Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n

Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAnika Jane Beamer\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

Reporter, Iowa<\/h4>\n

Anika Jane Beamer covers the environment and climate change in Iowa, with a particular focus on water, soil and CAFOs. A lifelong Midwesterner, she writes about changing ecosystems from one of the most transformed landscapes on the continent. She holds a master\u2019s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology and Spanish from Grinnell College. She is a former Outrider<\/a> Fellow at Inside Climate News and was named a Taylor-Blakeslee Graduate Fellow by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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By Anika Jane Beamer
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa\u2014James Hepp is sick of excuses. The 36-year-old farmer manages about 1,600 acres of corn, soy and small grains in northern Iowa. He keeps a close eye on his bottom line and says he wants to build a business that his three young children would be foolish not to join. For Hepp, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":914548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3824,2327],"tags":[6779,7017],"class_list":["post-914547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crisis","category-water","tag-crisis","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}