Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll: 2025 Summary

(November) The majority of farmers responding to the latest Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll feel that a reliance on specialized commodity agriculture is bad for them and their communities. Highlights:

• Sixty-nine percent agreed with the statement “Increased specialization in commodities (corn, soybeans, hogs, etc.) has led to loss of farms.” Just 16% of farmers agreed with the statement, “The shift away from diversified farm operations and toward specialized grain or livestock operations has generally been good for Iowa’s farmers.” Just 13% of respondents agreed that “The shift away from diversified farm operations and toward specialized grain or livestock operations has generally been good for Iowa’s rural communities.”
• Ninety-five percent of the respondents agreed with the statement, “The cost of inputs (seeds, chemicals, land) seems to rise faster whenever profit margins go up.” Sixty-nine percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “Sometimes I feel like I have little control over the profitability of my farm.”
• The Iowa Farm & Rural Life Poll was launched in 1982 and is the longest-running survey of its kind in the nation. The 2025 questionnaires were mailed in February to a statewide panel of 2,269 eligible farmers. Completed surveys were received from 945 farmers.

Check out LSP’s latest long range plan for details on creating a new vision for our farm and food system, as well as our rural communities.

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What Trump’s Bailout Means for Minnesota Farmers

(12/11/25) President Trump’s $12 billion bailout for farmers impacted by the trade war provides a short-term Band-Aid, but will most likely benefit large, wealthy operations the most, say experts interviewed by the Star Tribune. Highlights:

• The aid package includes $11 billion for row-crop farmers and another $1 billion for specialty growers and sugar producers. That’s roughly half the amount of funds sent to farmers in 2018 and 2019 by the Trump administration.
• A December report from the North Dakota State University Agricultural Trade Monitor in Fargo found that a 9% tariff on inputs, such as seeds and fertilizer, has cost farmers $33.1 billion. Through September, the University of Minnesota Extension’s farmer-lender mediation program, which protects farmers on the brink of default, had issued 1,896 notices in 2025, the highest total since 2020. Bankruptcy attorneys say the picture will worsen over the winter.
• While many farmers staring at bankruptcy will receive per-acre payments, many wealthier farmers could also see aid. Eligibility for a farmer cuts off at an adjusted gross income over $900,000. The broad requirements have driven some critics’ concern that dollars could unnecessarily flow to the largest farmers who may otherwise be able to weather a downturn in the ag economy.

LSP board member and southwestern Minnesota farmer Laurie Driessen recently wrote a blog describing how current federal ag policy is harming small and medium-sized farmers.

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Corn’s Clean-Energy Promise is Clashing with its Climate Footprint

(12/3/25) The investigative news site Floodlight reports on how the ethanol industry’s attempts to paint biofuel production as “green” energy are being undermined by scientific evidence showing the fertilizer used to grow corn is contributing to climate change and contaminating water. Highlights:

• Agriculture accounts for more than 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and corn uses more than two-thirds of all nitrogen fertilizer nationwide — making it the leading driver of agricultural nitrous oxide emissions, studies show. Since 2000, U.S. corn production has surged almost 50%, further adding to the crop’s climate impact.
• Research in 2022 by University of Wisconsin agricultural land use expert Tyler Lark and colleagues links the government’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to expanded corn cultivation, heavier fertilizer use, worsening water pollution, and increased emissions. Scientists typically convert greenhouse gasses like nitrous oxide and methane into their carbon-dioxide equivalents — or carbon intensity — so their warming impacts can be compared on the same scale. “The carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher,” the authors concluded.
• Since 2010, national corn and ethanol trade groups have spent more than $55 million on lobbying and millions more on political donations, according to campaign finance records analyzed by Floodlight. In 2024 alone, those trade groups spent twice as much on lobbying as the National Rifle Association. Major industry players — Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, and ethanol giant POET among them — have poured even more into Washington, ensuring the sector’s voice remains one of the loudest in U.S. agriculture. Now those same groups are pushing for expanding higher-ethanol gasoline blends and positioning ethanol-based jet fuel as aviation’s “low-carbon” future.
• Reducing corn’s climate footprint is possible — but the farmers trying to do it are swimming against the policy tide. Recent moves by the Trump administration have stripped out Biden-era incentives for climate-friendly farming practices, which the Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, dismissed as part of a “green new scam.” Research, however, shows that proven conservation practices could make a measurable difference.
• In northern Iowa, Wendy Johnson is planting fruit and nut trees, organic grains, shrubs, and other plants that need little or no nitrogen fertilizer on 130 of the 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans she farms with her father. Across the rest of the farm, they build the soil by rotating crops and planting cover crops. To support these measures, the farmers were counting on $20,000 a year from the now-cancelled federal government Climate-Smart grant program.

Wendy Johnson was recently featured on LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast. Check out LSP’s new Myth Buster on nitrogen fertilizer’s long-term pollution legacy. For more on ways to diversify out of row crops like corn, see LSP’s Small Grains web page.

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Trump Administration Launches Regenerative Agriculture Pilot

(12/10/25) The Trump administration will direct $700 million into a voluntary regenerative agriculture pilot program that builds on existing conservation programs, according to Civil Eats. Highlights:

• The funds will be split between existing conservation programs under the USDA. This includes $300 million for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and $400 million for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). These funds will come from the fiscal year 2026 budgets for both programs. The USDA also plans to leverage the SUSTAINS Act to bring corporate partners and likely funds into the effort. The SUSTAINS Act allows the USDA to accept private funding to support conservation programs.
• Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said conservation efforts at the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are currently “severely fragmented,” or simply address one part of conservation. The new regenerative agriculture initiative aims to create a unified process that emphasizes whole-farm planning, she said. Such whole farm planning can improve soil health, an issue touched upon by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
• Conservation groups welcomed the initiative, but raised questions about how it will be fully executed due to recent staffing cuts in the federal government. Farm Action, a nonprofit that advocates for small farms, emphasized that the administration must ensure there is adequate staffing at NRCS to allocate funds “quickly and fairly.” The service has lost at least 2,400 employees since January due to Trump administration efforts to reduce the federal workforce. In its 2026 budget request, the administration suggested eliminating NRCS technical assistance. In the final appropriations bill that funds the USDA and other agencies, Congress took a more moderate approach, but still cut nearly $100 million.

Read the recent Star Tribune commentary written by LSP’s Brian DeVore: “MAHA gives regenerative agriculture a moment in the sun.“

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Factory Farms in Iowa Generate 110 Billion Pounds of Manure Per Year. No One Tracks Where It’s Going.

(12/4/25) Despite a nearly 50 percent increase in nitrate levels in Iowa’s waterways and mounting evidence linking agricultural practices to pollution, that state has not substantively updated its fertilizer and manure rules since 2002, except for a 2009 amendment regulating when manure could be applied to snow-covered ground, reports Inside Climate News. Highlights:

• Ninety-nine percent of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in CAFOs. Iowa alone is home to approximately 23 million hogs, nearly all of which are raised in confinement, and which produce an estimated 110 billion pounds of manure each year.
• Yet the state is not doing enough to track where all that manure ends up, argues Gene Tinker, a northeastern Iowa farmer who served as the animal feeding operations coordinator at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for 14 years. For years, he unsuccessfully advocated for the department to update its rules on applying livestock manure as fertilizer.
• While the DNR requires farmers to submit documents outlining their plans for spreading livestock manure, the agency doesn’t collect records of where and how much manure is actually spread. Those records exist, produced by the certified hauling companies that contract with CAFOs to apply manure. But Iowa law classifies them as “confidential,” limiting public oversight and accountability.
• In recent decades, scientists across the Midwest — including faculty at Iowa State University — developed a new tool for determining optimal nitrogen application rates, one that accounts for recent research and fluctuating corn prices. When Tinker attempted to incorporate the calculator into the DNR’s manure management rules, he said he faced resistance from agricultural trade associations.

LSP organizers are working with members and allies in an attempt to update manure handling rules in Minnesota, which have not been fully reviewed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in almost three decades. For more information, e-mail LSP’s Matthew Sheets.

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Minnesota’s Leopold Conservation Award Winner Tom Cotter Dedicates the Honor to His Community

(12/10/25) The recipient of the 2025 Minnesota Leopold Conservation Award says sharing knowledge with farmers and others in his community has been integral to setting his operation on a regenerative path, reports Agweek. Highlights:

• Tom Cotter, who raises crops and livestock near Austin, Minn., was given the award, which honors farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat on working land.
• Over the years, Cotter has transitioned his family’s farm by utilizing soil-building practices like cover-cropping, rotational grazing, no-till, and diverse crop rotations.
•  “Tom doesn’t just practice conservation, he builds community around it,” said Liz Haney, a soil and ecosystem scientist who nominated Cotter for the award.

Tom Cotter is a member of LSP’s Austin-area Soil Health Hub and has hosted numerous field days with LSP and our partners over the years. You can hear an LSP Ear to the Ground podcast interview with Cotter here. Landon and Anne Plagge were the recipients of the Iowa Leopold Conservation Award for 2025. Landon will be speaking at LSP’s winter workshop on Jan. 27: “Beyond Exports: Rebuilding Local Markets.” 

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Farmer Demonstration Network Program Associated With Increased Conservation Adoption

(11/25/25) A study published in the journal Conservation Letters finds that systems that rely on farmer-leaders in a community and peer-to-peer networking can increase the adoption of soil-friendly practices like cover cropping. Highlights:

• By studying “demonstration farm programs” in Wisconsin, researchers found that such peer-to-peer learning can play a key role in “enhancing conservation norms and lessening barriers” when it comes to adopting new practices.
• Cover crop adoption likelihood increased by 3% points after four years of a demonstration farm program establishment, a 50% increase on the baseline adoption rate of the region.
• “This study adds to the growing body of evidence that well-designed demonstration farm programs, like those that combine increased visibility of practices with peer learning, can effectively support the adoption of conservation practices at a regional scale,” write the researchers.

Check out our recent blog series on how members of LSP’s Soil Health Hubs are sharing knowledge around ways to build soil health profitably. 

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