The impact of your bacon:

Des Moines: It’s a stinky distinction, but the state leads the nation when it comes to the amount of poop its people and livestock generate, research from a University of Iowa scientist shows. Christopher Jones, a UI research engineer, calculated Iowa’s population would be the equivalent of 168 million people, based on the waste from the state’s 3.2 million people and nearly 110 million chickens, pigs, turkeys and cattle. It’s about as many people as in Bangladesh, a country in south Asia. Factor in land size, and Iowa ranks first in the nation for waste creation, Jones writes in a blog he’s titled “50 Shades of Brown.” “Just to ensure clarity, in Iowa, we are generating as much fecal waste in every square mile as 2,979 people,” he says. “For reference, Iowa City is the second-most densely populated city in Iowa and has 2,775 people per square mile. So imagine an Iowa-sized Iowa City.”