In my new book, I lets the land speak for itself, says Neil Hamilton …

Who speaks for the land in Iowa? Mostly, the loudest voices come from large, powerful agricultural interests who see the land as a resource to exploit while paying little more than lip service to the notion of conserving and protecting the land for future generations.

But in a new book by retired Drake Law Professor Neil Hamilton, the land speaks for itself.

Throughout “The Land Remains,” a tract of Adams County farmland where Hamilton grew up, “The Back Forty,” talks about its history and chronicles the many changes in agriculture and public policy that have shaped its existence.

“For much of these thousands of years my only company was the animals and birds, the reptiles and others who found their homes nestled in my grasses or burrowed into my soils. Periodically, the tranquillity they found would be interrupted by the footsteps of humans,” The Back Forty recalls in its first appearance in Hamilton’s book.

As someone who has interviewed the Cedar River a couple of times, I’m a big fan of The Back Forty.

Wrapped around the land’s reflections are Hamilton’s experiences as a farm kid, landowner, policy advocate and agricultural law professor. He’s one of the state’s clearest, most experienced voices on agricultural policies and the pressing need for improved environmental stewardship. His book is a sweeping recounting of the conservation efforts, controversies and failures that have shaped the land and the state’s serious environmental problems.

https://www.thegazette.com/staff-columnists/in-his-new-book-neil-hamilton-lets-the-land-speak-for-itself/

The cover art of this book has a deceptive picture of a frac well not the hell on earth reality.

Generally, there has been a lack of governance. Combine this with a lack of enforcement of existing laws. And, there has been more money under the table than has been described.

Actually, sickness and in some cases deaths have resulted. Not at all a pretty picture to be permitted for a few hundred thousand dollars.

marilyn hunt