It’s time to demand clean water. Pollution from industrial agriculture and agriculture consolidation is a real
and pressing problem. Join scientist and author of The Swine Republic, Dr. Chris Jones; organizer and activist
Jess Piper of Missouri, and Missouri Rural Crisis Center communication director Tim Gibbons. Learn what’s
happening, discover how YOU can begin to make a change, and get busy getting the clean water all of us deserve.

Jess Piper is a fierce advocate for rural communities and public schools. She was an American
Literature teacher for 16 years and decided to run for a House seat in Missouri’s 1st district in
2022. Although she lost the race, she continues her activism and is currently Executive Director
of Blue Missouri. Piper has become the face of the “Dirt Road Democrat” movement in Missouri
to more than 200,000 followers on social media. She represents progressive rural Missourians.
Chris Jones is a retired Research Engineer. Jones retired abruptly this year after many years researching
and writing about Iowa’s water quality. He worked for the Iowa Soybean Association and Des Moines
Water Works prior to his time at the University of Iowa. His new book The Swine Republic: Struggles
with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality is a collection of his work, much of which led to the
controversy over funding the stream monitoring system he ran before leaving the University of Iowa.
Tim Gibbons has been with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) since 2005. MRCC
represents independent family farmers, rural families and their communities and citizens
concerned with our food supply, our natural resources and democracy. Tim works to organize
a large membership base of farm families, rural citizens and other Missourians to challenge
the industrialization and corporate control of agriculture and our democratic process.