Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn addressed a town hall crowd Wednesday (8/5) in Parkersburg, laying out a platform built around what he calls “restoring Iowa’s culture.” Lahn, a farmer and school founder from northwest Iowa, said the state is losing family farms and young people faster than most of the country. He pointed to rising cancer rates linked to nitrate pollution in water, saying agriculture “extraction” by large corporations is hurting rural communities while lobbying dollars block reform.
“Look, a high nitrate load in water is one of the top causes of colon cancer, it’s one of the fastest killing cancers we have. And we have ways and technologies that we can put in place in agriculture to completely remove the problem. It will take time and it will take money, but not from farmers.”
Lahn also proposed requiring transparency on who ultimately owns Iowa farmland, even when hidden behind LLCs.
“So I’ve said very clearly, either by regulation or legislation, we are going to require human level disclosure of who owns the land because we deserve to know who our neighbors are. I think it’s a foundational principle of being an Iowan.”
On education, Lahn pushed back against arguments that more spending alone fixes schools, instead backing “innovation waivers” giving superintendents flexibility. He also wants Iowa-grown food supplying 80 percent of public school meals by the end of his term. Fielding audience questions about data centers consuming farmland, Lahn said he already pressed one company to cut $500 million in tax incentives after winning his primary.
