Description: Detailing the report Iowa’s Water Crisis – Nothing Will Change If Nothing Changes, this session proposes eight policy pillars for agricultural reform designed to improve our state’s water quality. Moving beyond failed voluntary strategies, we explore enforceable nutrient limits, drainage accountability, and “polluter-pays” funding to facilitate a transition toward regenerative systems that protect public health and long-term rural vitality.

Authors: Adam Shriver, Liz Garst, John Norris

Author Bios: Adam Shriver is the Director of Wellness and Nutrition at the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement. He holds a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Land and Food Systems, the University of Pennsylvania Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and the University of Oxford (UK) Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. He is a co-author on the Environmental Risk Factor’s and Iowa’s Cancer Crisis report.

Liz Garst manages farms and banking interests for her family and has a long career in civic engagement on behalf of agriculture, the environment, rural development and civil liberties. In 2023 she was inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame, and she was named a Harkin Institute Senior Fellow in 2026.  Her current passion is soil health. 

John Norris is currently serving as a Senior Fellow at the Harkin Institute.  He has served as the Chief of Staff at USDA, The U.S. Minister-Counselor for Agriculture to the United Nations, Chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board, and Commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He is the lead author of  Iowa’s Water Crisis — Nothing Will Change If Nothing Changes, and developed the concept of the Central Iowa Source Water Research Assessment (CISWRA) when serving as the Polk County Administrator.