Investigate Midwest

The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit, is an award-winning news site based in Champaign, Illinois. It provides in-depth journalism on agribusiness and related issues—agricultural, rural and environmental—covering 12 states in the heartland of the U.S.

Current Position

Location: Des Moines, Iowa

Beat: Environmental impact of Iowa fertilizer (Mississippi River Basin Project)

Position:

Iowa is a top agricultural state but roughly half of the fertilizer that farmers apply trickles into streams and rivers, with massive loads of nitrate winding up in the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in a dead zone.This bilingual reporter, based in the IowaWatch newsroom, covers environmental and agricultural issues in communities around the river, and works on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. This initiative of Report for America, in partnership with the Missouri School of Journalism and the Society of Environmental Journalists, offers a network of collaborative reporting covering water, agriculture and environmental issues across the Mississippi River Basin.

Reporter: Monica Cordero Sancho