An Interview with Nina Elkadi

Author of "Corn Belt Confidential"

Nov 25, 2024

I don’t know when or how I first became aware of Nina Elkadi and her writings. All I know is I was impressed with her work before we ever met and that we exchanged emails. Sometimes my emails come so fast and furious that I feel like Tippi Hedren being attacked by swarming birds in the 1963 Hitchcock film “The Birds” that I forget who sent what, when, or even that they sent it.

If I remember correctly, Nina reached out a few months ago and asked if I was going to a conference on industrialized animal agriculture in Des Moines.

I said I was, and I told her that she would recognize me easily—that I would be the big old guy with a beard and suspenders.

Sure enough, Nina spotted me as soon as I walked in.

My daughter says affectionately that I look like a cartoon character, so I’m easy to spot.

You ever meet someone that the first time you spoke with them you were so comfortable you felt like you had known them for a long time? It was that way with Nina, and I suspect she feels the same way. Instant friends.

Since I am so impressed with her, I thought you would like to meet her, and asked her if she wanted to do an interview. We talk about her background, her career, the focus of her writing, and the exciting new opportunity she has in a new job.

Bob: Nina, welcome.

Nina: Thank you, Bob, so much for having me.

Well, you're just a very interesting writer. You're emerging. You've told me you're only 24 years old, and I know we're not supposed to talk about each other's ages, but I'm 70, and so to me, at 24, you've done some remarkable things. We're going to get to some of that and what you're doing now. But first, would you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I'm originally from Iowa City. I grew up there, all 18 years. My parents are both immigrants to Iowa City. My dad is originally from Egypt, and my mom is from Poland. I graduated from Iowa City West High where I was very involved in my high school newspaper, the West Side Story.

I got to report on all sorts of things there. I did an investigation into the underground Adderall market at West High. That was really my introduction to journalism. In college, I thought, let me try something else that's not journalism because of all the things I’ve been told. Journalism isn't very lucrative, it's not very sustainable. The industry is dying, etc, etc, etc. I got really interested in the history of science and how corporations manipulate science. I studied that and tried to not do journalism. And here I am now, fully doing journalism. I realized I just couldn't shy away from it. It feels like what I'm meant to do.

Well, great. Tell us about some of your publication history and the places you've been able to place pieces.

My first freelance piece was published this year. It was in Civil Eats, and it was a piece about Bloody Run Creek. I’ve published a few pieces there and I've published in Inside Climate News, Barn Raiser, High Country News, and most recently, Sentient Media.

Am I mis-remembering a National Geographic piece?

National Geographic, yes, sorry about that. A piece about the history of soybeans, which was the subject of my fellowship last year.

National Geographic is a big score too.

It is. And thank you for saying that. I think my parents were the most excited about that one. Growing up, the yellow magazines were everywhere. To think that I'm now published in it, albeit online, is pretty surreal.

You've got a very interesting Substack newsletter, Corn Belt Confidential. You've just started that. Tell us about it.

I started it in August when I was trying to think of where I should put ideas that aren't really a good fit for a more conventional publication. Interviews that I personally wanted to do with people, maybe some personal essays, things like that. It really focuses on the history and science behind agriculture, water, and the environment in the Corn Belt.

Tell us a little bit about some of the topics that you've covered recently.

My latest piece in Corn Belt Confidential was a Q&A with Michael Pollan on ultra-processed foods. It's a hot-button issue right now. I wanted to dispel some of the myths that are out there. I had no idea when I scheduled this interview, about two months ago, just how relevant it would be now. I've also done a Q&A about consolidation in the grocery industry with Austin Frerick and a Q&A with Silvia Secchi on how CAFO bans in states like California would impact Iowa.

Silvia’s a researcher here at the University of Iowa and Austin is the author of the really good book Barons about the people that run the food industry and how those companies came into existence.

I'm looking at your Substack, Corn Belt Confidential, and if I just happened upon this, I wouldn't even know really where to start. I mean, you've got Farmers React: The Election. I really want to read The Problem with Local CAFO Bans. What's So Important About a Farm Bill? Any of us that work or live in the Midwest and have anything related to farming or journalism should be reading that. Breakfast of Champions: The bitter taste of the world we've created. Is Grocery Store Price Gouging Real? Your County Has More Animal Feeding Operations Than You Think.

You've done a lot of work in a short amount of time.

Yes, that's true. I'm wondering when the adrenaline will wear off. I kind of feel like because I was resisting journalism for so long, I had all these ideas building up, and at this point it feels like I don’t have enough time in the day for all the ideas I have. I'm excited to see where it goes, and especially excited to hear some input from my readers on where it should go, especially going into this new administration.

I probably have 25 tabs open of things that I've started and stopped and may go back to. Are you that way too?

Yes, I have a running list, and just a few weeks ago, I added a notebook to my bedside table. My mind is always racing right before I fall asleep, and I realized I have to get these ideas on paper, or else I'm never going to sleep. There are lists everywhere.

That’s one of the interesting things about Substack is the creativity that it unleashes from you. Because if you and I are alike, we want to be published, and we want it out there in the world, and so we want to get places, and if not, sometimes we want to write something that we know won’t fit anywhere. But here, there's no gatekeepers. Our creativity can flow and go any way that it wants to. We don't have to hear an editor say it isn't the right fit. In some of the places that we publish, it's really hard to get into. And just because we can't get into it doesn't mean it's bad. And Substack gives us a place where we can put it so we get to know another side of writers, like you and I are doing here.

I think what you're able to do on Substack, which you do very well Bob, is you're able to lean into the “I” statements and lean into the narratives that you see as central to the story you're trying to tell. I tried to do that with Breakfast of Champions, which was my first attempt at a personal essay on my Substack. I have not published personal writing anywhere else and haven't pitched it anywhere else, and this feeling of breathing in pesticides on RAGBRAI, (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) kept sticking with me, and it felt like a story that I wanted to share with an audience who was subscribing to me. It felt like a very special story to tell on Corn Belt Confidential.

You’ve got a couple hundred subscribers already, which is really good, a faster pace than I started off. I thought it was remarkable when I got my first 50. You’re off to a great start. I think what you do is fantastic, and I hope people read whatever I'm about to write about this do subscribe to you, because you have lots of great content, and we need to help our writers help get the word out.

Importantly, some of the subjects that you've written about aren't in a lot of the mainstream journalism places. Is that how you feel?

Definitely, and that's really what my Substack tries to do. You can read about the farm bill in a lot of places, but it's usually pretty wonky. There’s jargon. I want my Substack to expose people who live in the Corn Belt and people who don't live in the Corn Belt to these issues in an accessible way.

Tell me what you think about your subscribers and the people that comment. Tell me about that experience.

It feels so special. I read somewhere, I think probably on Substack, about the feeling of knowing that if you put all of your subscribers in a room, and you looked out and just thought, all of these people are here to read me, they click that button because I'm writing, that's a feeling that you can’t get elsewhere.

When you're writing for these other publications, you never know who's reading, which is great, but there is something so special about this. It makes me feel like my obligation as a writer is so important, especially when I am delivering to people who are here to see my thoughts on things.

There's nothing better than somebody coming in and saying something that adds value to what you originally did.

Absolutely. I've been getting a lot of feedback from farmers. I think seeing the commentary from farmers who agree with me and from farmers who disagree with me has been really important in shaping how I go about writing about the issues that, for the most part, affect them the most.

So, how do you decide? I’m like ‘oh there's something to write about, oh there's something to write about. There's something to write about.’ How do you prioritize?

When you find the answer to that, please let me know. I must admit, I'm a bit of a planner. I have an idea of what my Substack is likely going to be usually a few weeks in advance. That has changed a lot in the past few weeks, but I really trying to keep my finger on the pulse of what people are talking about and what I can contribute that might be a slightly different perspective than is already out there. But I still feel like my timing can be either great or not so great.

And sometimes you just miss that window. It's just gone and you didn't work fast enough.

What does the world look like to you now? What part of the world that you see around us that I might not see, or people watching this, you see things, and young people, people of different generations see different things. Share what you see about the world around us that I might be totally missing.

Well, I think one thing that you yourself as a journalist and writer are probably not missing, but if I may say, and my dad is the same generation as you, might be missing, is a healthy dose of skepticism about everything. I think that my generation, Gen Z, is skeptical of literally everything we read, hear, and are told, especially by people older than us. I think a good example is, many people in my generation will struggle to buy a house. Sometimes older generations don't really see how that's possible, or don't want to talk about that. I think in my writing, I'm really trying to highlight what I'm skeptical of. And I try to see if sources can shine some light on things. I don't always leave feeling not skeptical, but I think that process is what I want my readers to see.

Very good. Well, tell me about the line for you between just reporting and opinion. I just do whatever I want, you know, and I try to do it responsibly and accurately and honestly. I guess I can still do some journalism, but I really feel like I can make more of a difference by analyzing and thinking and really putting the time into things a lot of other people don't have the time to do and work through things, because if I don't really know anything about a subject I don't really know if I have an opinion right away. So maybe I better think that through. Sometimes I really only know what I think after I've written about something, and I feel that's powerful. Are you going that direction, too?

I think one of the initial things that pushed me away from journalism was that I thought that I had to be objective. I put that aside and realized that no one can be objective, and anything that we do, we all come with our own ways of perceiving the world, our backgrounds, our opinions on issues, and by kind of keeping those in my mind as I'm reporting, which I think everyone should be, that’s what's been the most freeing part about not only my Substack, but my reporting as of late. I carry that opinion in my head, and as you said, work through it on the page, trying to answer these questions, trying to anticipate what questions readers might have.

And I don't think I've come to a point in my career where I feel like I can give my opinion on most things. I don't know that I ever will reach a point where I feel like I can, but that being said, in the way that I write, inherently, my opinion is everywhere.

It's a tough question. Obviously, I'm still thinking through it.

We stay in our lanes too. I like to write about places I see and have been and things I know about.

I always like to ask people, what didn't I ask you about that you wanted me to ask you?

I think you've done a pretty good job. Such a great question to ask at the end of an interview. I think the one thing that comes to mind is just something that I’ve been inspired by you doing, which is elevating issues and stories from the Midwest to the national stage. It’s a privilege to be able to do that. There are so many writers who are working hard in local communities in the Midwest, and I bringing those stories to a national audience, and showing people that what's happening on the coasts isn't all there is. There's a whole country out there. Now more than ever, I think we need to be really focusing on and reading those local stories.

I agree. Now you're moving to a new position. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I'll be starting a position at Sentient Media on January 2 as an Investigative Reporter. The publication is really focused on factory farming, and that's what my role will be focused on. I can't say too much about exactly what I'll be investigating, but as I mentioned before, my own interests are in corporate influence over science and industry. That's something I'll definitely be looking into next year.

Well, that's fantastic. I know we'll be learning more about it. We'll learn more about it in your new outlet. We can learn about it and more at Corn Belt Confidential. And Nina, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much for having me, Bob.

Nina and I both posted our perspectives on this interview at the same time this morning. You can find her at Corn Belt Confidential and subscribe there.

Please join me and consider subscribing to Corn Belt Confidential and support Nina as I know she will continue doing great things. And, a new investigative reporter in Iowa where there are not nearly enough? I find that pretty darn exciting…

And I’ll try to do better with my emails!

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