Corn Bred

Richard Manning’s critiques of Iowa politics [“The Trouble with Iowa,” Report, February] are all too familiar to those of us who live in the state, and many of us agree that deep structural changes are needed. But when it comes to the substance of those changes, some of Manning’s suggestions are as simplistic as those of the politicians.

He notes, for example, that “maybe even raising a few cattle on grass” could reduce waste runoff into Iowa’s rivers. But he hasn’t taken into account the scarcity of farmers who actually know enough about livestock to care for them…