Floodable Iowa River Valley | Civil Eats

Floodable Iowa River Valley

Iowa experienced the flood of the century 15 years ago. That, of course, was a different century.

Over the last week Iowans have seen floods unlike any in living memory. 1400 city blocks in Cedar Rapids were inundated with water up to 11 feet deep. 16 University of Iowa buildings were flooded. Interstates 80 and 380 were closed by water flowing 2 feet over their bridges. Levees have given way in Des Moines and Columbus Junction. 36,000 Iowans are newly homeless.

Now, that water moves south, breeching levees in Missouri and Illinois, infecting groundwater, ruining lives.

All this will have lasting impact on our state and its neighbors, but the larger impact may be felt across the country and around the world. An estimated 2 million acres of freshly planted farmland is under water. Statewide, about 20 percent of soybeans and 10 percent of all corn grown is either lost or at risk of being lost, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture. The smaller sustainable family farms of the region are hit particularly hard because they lack many of the federal protections afforded the large commodity growers, but those big corporate farms grow roughly a third of the corn and soy in this country and the ripple effects on our already weakened economy will spread just like the floodwaters. Even the stockpiles left from last season’s bumper-buster harvest (those that were not themselves ruined by floodwaters), cannot be shipped to market because railroad bridges are closed or washed out completely and the Mississippi River is closed to barge traffic along Iowa’s entire eastern border.

Closer to home, my dear friend Susan Jutz, director of the area’s largest CSA, lost her 102-year-old barn to the storms. Restaurant owner Jim Mondanaro’s flagship restaurant is underwater, with all its equipment, furniture, and a $12,000 inventory of food. Scott McWane’s Dairy Queen, in the family since 1951, survived a Packard through it’s front window in 1958, 6 feet of water in the basement in 1993, and a tornado that opened it up like a pizza box in 2006. When the Iowa River Crested on Sunday there were 8 feet in that same basement.

While some CSAs have lost entire crops and acres of land, the CSAs that went unhurt are trying to get their food to families who have lost their homes.

newsmatch 2023 banner - donate to support civil eats

83 of Iowa’s 99 counties are state and/or federal disaster areas. Whole towns are evacuated. Family businesses lost. Restaurants underwater. The rebuilding process will take years and be in the billions of dollars.

Slow Food Iowa is in the process of determining what it can do to assist the affected farmers, wineries and restaurants. We’ll soon be turning to the wider Slow Food world for help. Meanwhile your advice and your prayers will be most welcome.

Donations are currently being accepted to assist in recovery for farmers and food producers connected to the Slow Food community. If you would like to make a donation, click here or email Kurt Michael Friese at k.friese[at]mchsi.com.

Photo Credits: Cow and Landscape images Creative Commons licensed from Flickr

We’ll bring the news to you.

Get the weekly Civil Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox.

Chef Kurt Michael Friese is editor-in-chief and co-owner of the local food magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. A graduate and former Chef-Instructor at the New England Culinary Institute, he has been owner, with his wife Kim McWane Friese, of the Iowa City restaurant Devotay for 16 years. Named for his children Devon and Taylor, Devotay is a community leader in sustainable cuisine and supporting local farmers and food artisans. Friese is a freelance food writer and photographer as well, with regular columns in 6 local, regional and national newspapers and magazines. His first book, A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland was published by in August, 2008 by Ice Cube Press, and his lates book, Chasing Chiles, was released by Chelsea Green Publishing in March, 2011. Read more >

Like the story?
Join the conversation.

  1. georgekevin
    All this will have lasting impact on our state and its neighbors, but the larger impact may be felt across the country and around the world. As estimated 2 million acres of freshly planted farmland is under water.While some CSAs have lost entire crops and acres of land.many of the families have lost their homes.

    George Kevin
  2. Joyce Schulte
    What does your group do in western Iowa?

More from

General

Featured

Volunteers from DTE Energy pack prepackaged boxes for delivery to churches and homebound seniors at Focus: HOPE, a local agency located in Detroit, Michigan that operates the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) in a client choice model so that participants can select the foods they want. (Photo credit: Preston Keres, USDA)

The Government Spends Billions on Food. Who Benefits?

In this week’s Field Report: A push to improve federal food purchasing heats up, the first food-focused COP kicks off, dust storms accelerate, and new evidence suggests that fair-trade certifications are failing to protect farmworkers.

Popular

With Season 2, ‘High on the Hog’ Deepens the Story of the Nation’s Black Food Traditions

Stephen Satterfield and Jessica B. Harris watching the sunset at the beach, in a still from Netflix's High on the Hog Season 2. (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Building a Case for Investment in Regenerative Agriculture on Indigenous Farms

Jess Brewer gathers livestock at Brewer Ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. (Photo courtesy of Intertribal Agriculture Council, www.indianag.org)

Walmart and EDF Forged an Unlikely Partnership. 17 Years Later, What’s Changed?

Aerial view of cargo containers, semi trailers, industrial warehouse, storage building and loading docks, renewable energy plants, Bavaria, Germany

Relocalizing the Food System to Fight a ‘Farm-Free Future’