Zach Lane is a sixth-generation Iowan, regenerative farmer, businessman, and independent candidate for Iowa Governor. Son of a Christian pastor and founder of Home Place Ventures, he's raising seven children with his wife Annie while fighting to preserve Iowa's agricultural heritage and address what he calls a systematic capture of farming by corporate interests.

The conversation explores the collapse of family farming in Iowa, where 100,000 farms have disappeared in the past decade while agribusiness companies spent $1.5 billion lobbying Congress. Lane discusses how corporate monopolies are extracting wealth from farmers while poisoning communities with chemicals like glyphosate and paraquat.

Lane details Iowa's health crisis, including the fastest rate of new cancer in human history and a 50% increase in farmer suicide rates over 20 years. He connects these problems to corporate capture of regulatory agencies and politicians who prioritize special interests over constituents, drawing inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt's vision of principled leadership found in The Man in the Arena.

The Corporate Capture of American Agriculture

Over the past 10 years, the top five agribusiness companies spent $1.5 billion lobbying Congress while making $150 billion in profits, during which time America lost 100,000 family farms.

Three companies now control 85% of agriculture input markets in Iowa, down from over 300 companies when Lane was growing up, creating the illusion of choice for farmers.

Syngenta, 100% owned by the Chinese government, has received $7.5 million in refundable tax credits from Iowa taxpayers while competing against homegrown Iowa seed companies.

When GMO seed patents expire after 20 years, companies scramble the names into random letters and numbers in the seed library so independent seedsmen can't identify them, forcing continued royalty payments.

Iowa's Food Production Paradox

Only 0.03% of Iowa's 24 million acres produce food that ends up on dinner plates in its original form - roughly 9,000 acres out of the entire state.

Iowa imports 95% of its food despite having some of the world's best farmland, with most production going to ethanol, animal feed shipped out of state, and exports.

The state lost 10,000 family farms over the past 20 years while farm consolidation accelerated, making it impossible for two families to survive on the same operation that once supported multiple generations.

25% of Iowa's farmland is now owned by out-of-state investors and funds who will never attend Friday night football games or shop on Main Street, similar to BlackRock's single-family home purchases.

The Glyphosate Cover-Up and Health Crisis

Iowa has both the highest concentration of glyphosate use and the highest cancer rates in the nation, with farmer suicide rates increasing 50% over the past 20 years as 10,000 farms disappeared.

The EU banned the U.S. formulation of Roundup because it's too toxic, while Monsanto reformulated it to be 20 times less toxic for European markets but kept the dangerous version for Americans.

Internal Monsanto emails from the 'Monsanto Files' show executives asking 'why would we continue to make a harmful product when we can make a safer one' after reformulating for Europe, yet they changed nothing for the U.S. market.

Glyphosate tolerance levels in food can be changed by industry petition to the EPA - oats went from 0.1 parts per million in the 1990s to 20 parts per million (a 20,000% increase) when companies wanted to use desiccation spraying.

Glyphosate acts as a powerful chelator that binds to calcium in bones, creating a slow-release repository in bone marrow that disrupts cell replication cycles, which is how cancer begins.

Trump's Glyphosate Immunity Executive Order

Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to boost domestic glyphosate production, with Section 707 providing immunity to producers like Bayer from liability claims.

RFK Jr., who previously won a $289 million verdict against Monsanto as an attorney, endorsed the order claiming it's about national security despite 618,000 Americans dying of cancer in 2025 alone.

The order contains no exclusion for product liability immunity, meaning Bayer can use it as a defense in court by claiming they were ordered to maintain production under the Defense Production Act.

Lane immediately opposed the order, tweeting: 'There's no potential ban on glyphosate. There are only pending lawsuits of Americans who have been harmed by this product. This must be reversed.'

Corporate Welfare and Data Center Giveaways

Cedar Rapids gave Google and QTS $529 million in tax rebates for data centers on 1,400 acres of former farmland, with the companies contractually obligated to create only 30 jobs - $17 million per job.

Lane proposes charging data centers higher property taxes and using the revenue to lower taxes for surrounding communities instead of giving massive corporate subsidies.

The construction site south of Cedar Rapids 'looks like a military installation is being put in' with unprecedented amounts of heavy equipment building at record speed.

Iowa's Water Crisis and Environmental Collapse

Des Moines operates the world's largest nitrate removal system for drinking water, and it often can't keep up, requiring notices that residents can't water lawns to avoid stressing the filtration system.

Multiple Iowa lakes have swimming bans due to chemical contamination, with reports of people getting burned skin from jumping in contaminated water.

The Raccoon River is either the most or second most polluted tributary in the United States, receiving direct drainage from field tiles that carry nitrogen and chemicals straight from farmland to waterways.

Des Moines developers can't sell houses without pre-installing reverse osmosis systems due to water quality concerns.

A Return to Iowa's Heritage and Values

Lane bought back his family's homestead in 2014 and spent 11 years restoring it board by board using old photos, discovering his grandfather's initials 'V L' carved in a basement post during a moment of doubt.

Iowa contributed more soldiers per capita to the Civil War than any other state, with Lane's great-great-grandfather serving in the famed 'Hawkeyes on horseback' cavalry unit that fought in the Battle of Nashville.

Lane draws inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt's vision of being 'a preaching president' about American values, frequently reading The Man in the Arena for motivation during challenging times.

His campaign focuses on four core issues: stopping the cancer crisis, keeping Iowa's children in the state, saving family farms, and making education number one - all bipartisan concerns that resonate with 89% of audiences regardless of party affiliation.