As the nation’s top pork producer, Iowa’s 23 million hogs outnumber its three million people by more than seven to one. Millions of pounds of raw hog waste are applied to the state’s corn and soybean fields yearly. Nutrients from fertilizer wash into lakes and streams, poisoning water that flows into the Missouri and Mississippi river basins, providing drinking water to 28 million Americans.

In his new book ‘The Swine Republic,’ environmental scientist Chris Jones tells hard truths about Iowa’s agricultural industry and how its farming practices contaminate water thousands of miles away.

LINK (via Outside)