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THE LOBE RANGERS
What We Believe
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Conservation and profitability are not opposites.
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Voluntary “carrot-only” approaches have not delivered the scale of change required.
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Broad-acre disincentives for harmful practices must be part of the conversation.
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The public deserves transparency about what is happening on Iowa’s landscape.
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Candidates running for office should be able to answer one simple question:
Do you understand the level of change required to produce the results voters are asking for?
WE BELIEVE IOWA DESERVES CLEAN WATER
We Are Three Farmers From the Des Moines Lobe.
We’ve been farming this land for over a decade using strip-till, cover crops, and in-season nitrogen application. Not as an experiment. Not as a PR strategy. As a business model that works.
We know firsthand that you can raise abundant, profitable crops while protecting soil and water. We are doing it. But we are also fed up with industry groups projecting that farms like ours represent the whole landscape. They do not.
We’re tired of watching ag lobbying groups and politicians talk conservation at the podium while meaningful legislation dies in the statehouse. We’re tired of voluntary programs being praised as progress when, after 13 years, they haven't produced meaningful results beyond vapid rhetoric.
We’ve read the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It clearly states that 60–80% of Iowa’s landscape must adopt both in-field and edge-of-field practices to see meaningful nitrate reduction. That level of change has not even remotely close to happening, and industry and state leaders pretending otherwise doesn’t serve farmers or the public.
Like many Iowans, we have too many family members and friends dealing with cancer. We live in a state with the fastest-growing cancer rate in the country. That concerns us — not as activists, but as dads, neighbors, and community members.
It’s time Iowans heard from farmers who are thriving by adopting the changes required for cleaner water and a stronger future.
Our Story
The Lobe Rangers are conservation-minded Iowa farmers who refuse to sit quietly while agriculture is oversimplified or misrepresented.
We live this work every day.
We see the soil.
We test the water.
We invest our own money and sweat into practices that protect this land for the next generation.
Our goal is not to argue.
It’s to educate.
To pull back the curtain on what’s actually happening.
To show the real progress, the real challenges, and the real solutions.
We are not interested in blame.
We are interested in moving forward.
And we’re not waiting for permission to do it.
Join the Movement
If Iowa’s water quality is going to improve, it will take truth, transparency, and shared responsibility.
The public can’t stand on the sidelines anymore.
It’s time for real change.
It’s time for farmers who are already leading it.
WE BELIEVE THE TIME IS NOW...
Meet the Team
Zack Smith
Iowa Farmer
Matthew Bormann
Iowa Farmer
James Hepp
Iowa Farmer
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