The Democrat running against Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra in Iowa’s fourth congressional district says rank-and-file voters in the district have “massive” public health concerns that aren’t being addressed. Iowa is the only state where cancer rates are increasing and Ryan Melton says Iowans want answers.
“None of us are happy with the fact, regardless of political affiliation…that we have a cancer crisis on our hands and that we have Republican elected officials representing this state in Des Moines and D.C. that are not even willing to acknowledge the problem, much less try to get to the root of the problem and begin mitigating it.”
Melton cites Palo Alto County, which has a cancer rate 50% higher than the national average. There’s just one other county in the country that has a higher incidence of cancer among its residents. Melton says more robust action is needed to encourage farmers to reduce the amount of fertilizer that winds up in Iowa waterways.
“You talk to any or most agronomists in this state and they’ll say we only have 50, 60, 70 years of topsoil left before we can’t do ag the way we do it now,” Melton says. “Clearly the status quo is falling short in a wide variety of different ways.”
Melton, who works for a major insurance company, says policymakers should explore limiting the amount of nitrogen applied to farm fields. “We do have plenty of experts in agronomy that have set forth formulas as far as the amount of fertilizer you should be using per land mass,” Melton says. “I think Iowa State University, their agronomy department developed a formula a few decades back that hasn’t really gained as much momentum as we’d want to see.”
Melton says the added cost of treating drinking water to reduce contaminants and the sheer number of “swimming not advised” warnings this summer at state owned parks are concerning to Iowans, regardless of party. And Melton says there need to be increased protections for public health and water due to the increase in large-scale hog operations in Iowa.
“You’re adding so much more manure to the landscape and yet you have not added more and more mitigation strategies to protect our waterways,” Melton says.
Melton made his comments during today’s taping of “Iowa Press” which airs tonight on Iowa PBS. Congressman Feenstra did not accept the invitation from Iowa PBS to debate Melton before this year’s election. Melton is running against Feenstra for a second time. Melton works for a major insurance company. Melton and his family recently moved from Nevada to Webster City.