Factory Farms in Iowa Generate 110 Billion Pounds of Manure Per Year. No One Tracks Where It’s Going.

This story is a collaboration between Inside Climate News and Sentient Media.

More than a thousand hogs grow fat in the enclosed shed-like structures on Gene Tinker’s farm in northeast Iowa, while a few hundred cattle pace in open feedlots.

His farm is one of nearly 8,000 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa. But the 64-year-old is not an average Iowa pork producer.

Less than a decade ago, Tinker was the state’s top administrator managing questions and disputes over livestock operation permitting.

Tinker was the animal feeding operations coordinator at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for 14 years. Before losing his job during department budget cuts in 2017, he advised staff who granted permits to livestock facilities and reviewed plans for handling the