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Opinion: The Iowa I reveled in on the first RAGBRAI in 1973 is long gone
Jim Walters
July 17, 2023 at 6:05 AM
Back in 1973, I rode on the first RAGBRAI, from Sioux City to Davenport. In the vernacular of that time, it was "a blast." Over 300 of us made that trip, with hundreds joining in along the way. Everywhere people greeted us with enthusiasm.
...
On that first ride, we went through vibrant small towns, past hundreds of family farms, seeing livestock in the fields. At every creek or stream, we stopped to cool our feet, wade, or swim. There were fencerows where wildlife abounded.
The Iowa of 1973 is gone. I recently went to Dubuque to visit the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. U.S. Highway 151 used to go through pleasing small towns and passed dozens of family farm dairy operations. Now, the road bypasses those towns and most of the dairy farms are gone, replaced by ethanol grain operations.
The thought of riding across Iowa and seeing the abandoned farmsteads, while smelling the stench of the CAFOs, looking in vain for the fencerows and windbreaks, enduring miles of endless corn and beans, and being fearful of any contact with our surface waters, would be too much for me. So, count me out.
...https://www.aol.com/van-meter-softball-advances-state-145817312.html
July 17, 2023 at 6:05 AM
Back in 1973, I rode on the first RAGBRAI, from Sioux City to Davenport. In the vernacular of that time, it was "a blast." Over 300 of us made that trip, with hundreds joining in along the way. Everywhere people greeted us with enthusiasm.
...
On that first ride, we went through vibrant small towns, past hundreds of family farms, seeing livestock in the fields. At every creek or stream, we stopped to cool our feet, wade, or swim. There were fencerows where wildlife abounded.
The Iowa of 1973 is gone. I recently went to Dubuque to visit the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. U.S. Highway 151 used to go through pleasing small towns and passed dozens of family farm dairy operations. Now, the road bypasses those towns and most of the dairy farms are gone, replaced by ethanol grain operations.
The thought of riding across Iowa and seeing the abandoned farmsteads, while smelling the stench of the CAFOs, looking in vain for the fencerows and windbreaks, enduring miles of endless corn and beans, and being fearful of any contact with our surface waters, would be too much for me. So, count me out.
...https://www.aol.com/van-meter-softball-advances-state-145817312.html
I think he romanticized the 70's a bit. Much of what we are living in now has it roots in the excesses and greed of those days. I remember two wells in my home town being closed in the late 70s due to high nitrate levels. And the local garbage dump polluting the air and water - they burned everything. But at least there was some acknowledgement that there were problems that needed to be addressed. Today it seems industrial ag controls everything while their GOP (and some Dem) sycophants enable them. I don't want or expect to return to the "good old days." But I'm not at all excited by our current trajectory either.
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