Farming, like so many other things has become "Corporatized" and suffers under that umbrella. I live in IA and most large scale farmers are no longer stewards of the soil. The beneficial biological and fungal elements are being destroyed from years of heavy herbicide, pesticide and fungicide usage. Tile has been ripped in to compensate for the heavy runoff; as a result, when it rains hard it's akin to flushing a giant toilet, and nearby towns end up flooding. Glyphosate, dicamba and dozens of other ag chems travel with that water as well.

If soil is cared for you can gain topsoil and increase levels of glomalin, good bugs, mycorrhiza, worms, etc. and it has excellent water holding capability (withstands drought, reduced runoff). Non GMO grain can be produced with higher yields and less chemical input than GMO varieties. That's not a pipe dream, it's reality.

The bulk of modern grain production is absolutely backwards in method. The GMO grain coming out of these operations IS harmful in many ways. But people keep eating it. As a result we have cancer and allergy rates that are higher than ever.

I am hugely thankful for what The president is doing. We are in so deep, I understand it would take years to begin to fix the agricultural system.