Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visits about the work of the Iowa Department and Agriculture and Land Stewardship. He talks about programs and opportunities to look at alternative production. He talks about clean water and getting more producers and land owners involved. He also talks about markets and the costs associated with agriculture.
Transcript
And right now, I'm going to take some time. I'm going to visit with Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Nagin. Thanks for taking time to stop by our studio. Hey, it is great to be with you in studio. I know we've seen each other on the road a few times, but it's great to be here. Been out at a few different places. Occasionally, things like farm progress, and you get out there. And last time, one of the times we visited, oh gosh, early on, would have been up at Red Granite Farms and choose Iowa. That was one of the things you were pushing for. It has continued to grow. It has. And I'm glad you refreshed my memory on the fact that that was actually early on. We just launched Choose Iowa three years ago. And it's all about Iowa grown, Iowa made, Iowa raised. But believe it or not, 360 members today and growing. And we're really excited about that. And this is all about, you know, Iowans continue to show that they want to shop local. They want to know where their food comes from. They want to have experiences, farm experiences. And that's a great opportunity, market development for farmers and businesses. And gosh, we've seen now on-farm little retail shops. You've got dairy processing happening on farms, cheese making. Lots of folks are selling meat direct to consumer, processing locally at a meat locker. And we've got grants for them as well. So there's a lot of excitement around this. Maybe this is new, you know, new as of last year. But we have, we're in the second year of offering grants to schools to help them source locally. Again, from Choose Iowa members. And, you know, what better group of Iowans to have fresh, local, nutritious foods than our kids? And we're really excited about those. Some incredibly exciting things and energizing things happening there that's building markets. I know it's, and it's one of those too. It does, obviously, we're corn and beans. Yeah. And hogs and cattle. And I mean, that's the big thing. But there is that niche. There's always that niche. And people, especially when we hit COVID, people found out they were missed that. Yes. They didn't have that. 100%. And actually that's the origin of Choose Iowa really does come out of the pandemic and that disruption where people started to say, where do things come from? And I will say this. Yes, corn and soybeans will continue to be our major drivers in our ag economy. But there is an opportunity. We have 30 million acres of farm ground, farm land in this state. Not all of it is in row crop. And so what I like to say is there's plenty of room for all kinds of diversity in ag, everything from produce, fruits and vegetables. Again, the meat sales are obvious, but cut flowers, horticulture. I mean, you name it, there's plenty of room for it. And again, what the key is, is making sure that there's a market for those things. We can grow a lot of things in the state of Iowa. Is there a market? Are there institutional buyers like schools and food banks and even retail stores and distributors? And then do Iowans have a chance to buy those products directly or at a farmer's market or something like that? So a lot of fun, a lot of great things happen in there. We keep looking for different ways for that to keep growing too. And it is too. It's for the people that want to do the work. They've got some very ingenious entrepreneurs. How's that? And I will say this, very entrepreneurial. And the other thing is that we are excited about is often times, not always, but often times it's the next generation maybe of an existing farm operation, says hey, we're going to add some value here. Or maybe it's a first generation farmer. Oftentimes it's young beginning and small farmers that are getting into these types of initiatives. And we love that for the next generation to be able to, you know, it's hard to get on a thousand acres of farm ground and grow corn your first couple of years, but you can get on some smaller acres and still have a very viable and profitable farm. Let's talk some of the big things. Obviously you've been working on it and we are right in the, well, I'm going to say we're the upstream part of it. Yeah, yeah. A lot of focus on water quality in particular. And you got a number of grants and programs, especially upstream from the Metro. And obviously we're right there. You are, yes. So Boone County is, I call it Beaver Creek, the west side of the county. And on the east side, you got Highway Creek running through Story County. And we've got Big Creek down here on the south end too. True, very much. And so I appreciate you asking, you know, water's a very important topic for the state of Iowa. And that's not just because it's an election year. It's something that we have been working on diligently now for the last several years. We have what's called the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy that lays out an aggressive goal of reducing nitrates and phosphorus in our lakes, rivers, and streams. And the way that we can do that, the way that we can ensure that Iowans have access to safe drinking water, regardless of where they live, is that you got to do a combination of a couple of things. One is we need to continue to see the adoption of conservation practices that clean water. Things like cover crops that you plant in the fall and they are terminated in the spring, but they literally hold soil in place and filter those nutrients out before they get into our water. Wetlands, there's several great wetland projects actually in Boone County that, again, these are treating acres of water denitrifying. You can take as much as 90% of the nitrates out of the water when you have one of these wetlands. And we're building those at a pace that we've never seen before. And then buffer strips along streams. And the other really exciting one is we're working with beef producers. We know we need to grow the beef herd in this country. And so what we're looking at is targeting acres that are currently in corn and soybean, but really what they should be is in grass or in pasture, because that's the environmentally right thing to do, but it's also economically, right? Because we're getting more cattle on the landscape. And so it's initiatives like that that we're seeing. I'm proud of the fact that, you know, look, I get asked all the time, hey, we should start doing something on water. And what I get to say is, hey, we have set records now for conservation adoption in Iowa the last five years. There's a tremendous amount of work going on. We just need to do more of it. And the other piece is we worked with the legislature this year to create the Farm Defosite Approach, which is also investing in modernizing drinking water treatment systems in places like Des Moines, but also in small communities as well. Grants and loans to make sure that, regardless of where you live, again, that you can have access to that safe drinking water. I know that's one of the issues that, like locally, they come up as, and since we are expanding our water treatment, because we have a big user coming online here in a couple of years, along with a lot of milk for that. But besides that, it's one of those issues, watching nitrate levels, and we're never going to get rid of all of it. I mean, I think people think we can totally eliminate it. I don't know if it's possible. Well, so it's good. It's part of our land. It's a natural part of our landscape. We have high organic matter, good, dark soil that's very productive. And part of that is that we have naturally occurring nitrates in our system. It's why we can be so productive here. And so what we need to do, again, it's a paired approach. What you want to do is try to prevent losing those nutrients from your farm ground or the city, as well, by the way. This is urban. Iowans can participate as well. Stormwater is important to control, but also on the farm. Let's make sure we don't lose those nutrients. Sometimes the weather is the dominant factor here. We can't control. Look, we had the historically wet September, right? Oh my gosh, I wish I could have controlled the weather, but I can't. And so that creates a situation where you might move some nutrients through the system. That's where you have to then be able to say, we also have the ability to treat water and do both. And it's not one or the other. And what I keep saying is, gosh, let's make sure we do this in a coordinated, collaborative way that's not blaming each other, but also recognizes that we've got responsibility on both sides of this equation. And we need to do more. It's a challenge, and I know producers have different ideas on how they want to do it. Some are more, again, will do the cover crops, and I know some that just, no, I'm just not going to fit my business, my plan. I think the other thing to remember is every farm really truly is different. And different parts of the state, a different landscape. And in some places, cover crops make a ton of sense. And we think they make a sense over broad areas in the state. But you know what? For some, it is more of a, hey, I want to use buffer strips. I'm going to go with no till. No, in fact, we want to put a wetland in this spot. And others are saying, yeah, 100% in cover crops. The point is, is that we want folks to be thinking about not if they're going to do something, or if they're going to be increasing their commitment to conservation. It is, how are they going to do it? How does it make sense? And then what we look at is, how do we then craft a program? Or even sometimes it's not financial. It's not cost share that they need. They just need some technical support or some advice on how to do these things. We set a record for cover crop cost share applications this year. We doubled this year over last year. OK, so what that tells me is, hey, as long as there's a lot of interest in this and a lot of information going out and the resources are available, farmers are stepping up, we just need to keep going. We need to keep the petal to the floor and keep accelerating on both ends of that equation. Let's go back to the corn and beans part of it, corn part of it anyway, ethanol. And got some challenges going on there. Again, everybody keeps waiting for E15. Well, some way at some point in time, something's going to happen. I agree with you, by the way. I think it's been a source of frustration because we've been to the goal line so many times. It's football season. I'll use that analogy. And then we just, there's definitely pressure. There's opposition that comes from oil companies, big oil companies. And what we need to do is just remember that, look, especially in an environment where fuel prices are higher than any of us want them to be, it just drives home. It reminds us of the value of domestic energy production, first of all. And the second thing is, and how do more people play a part in that, renewable fuels being one of those key components? Year-round nationwide access to E15 would give all Americans the benefit of having cheaper fuel like we have in the state of Iowa. Iowans saved $60 million just last year because they pumped E15 over E10. That's a big savings. And it'll be more this year because there'll be more access to E15, unleaded 88. And so we'll know that that number will grow. And the other is, of course, ethanol is a global market. We have seen some really strong export, sales numbers, especially to places like Canada, the UK. And there's opportunity for that, too. So we ought to be using as much as we can domestically. Then we can look at some export markets. But it's a big deal for Iowa. $5 billion worth of GDP economic activity for the state of Iowa. And that number can grow, and it's a really important market. Well, that's just one of many other things that are happening. There's so many others out there, too. Let's talk a little bit about the marketing and trade. And obviously, we know diesel prices are crunching everybody now. Bottom line is, yeah, if we had domestic supply, that would certainly improve. And fertilizer in particular, as well. I think we've got to look big picture here, which is whether it's on the, you know, we say there's profitability is under pressure on the farm. And why is that? Well, it's because prices aren't where we need them to be and because input prices are too high and because we've got uncertainty when it comes to things like a farm bill or even trade policy. It's really across the board. So how do you attack that? Well, you can work on all sides. Market development is one of those things where we say, truly, whether it is an international market or it's a domestic demand or it is even very locally, we should be trying to build every market that we possibly can for the things that we produce here. Input side, it's a story of, you know, these are global marketplaces. And again, we ought to be thinking about, how do we reshore more of what we need in this country? Why, I would love a day where we don't have to worry about what's happening in the Middle East period, you know, regardless of what's going on from a fuel and fertilizer standpoint. But, you know, that's not the situation that we're in today. And those things are definitely driving up the cost. It's just flat out driving up the cost of those two things for farmers and that's creating more pressure. It is a world economy, isn't it? It is. And you know, an ag is a global, it's a global marketplace. And we have to, we have to recognize that. More about your campaign going on, obviously making the rounds, getting to stop here. But you still got a lot of different places to go. And people can always check your campaign online. Yeah, they can. You know, follow along on social media, website, MikeNeg.com. And yeah, we're excited. It's going to be a very busy week and a half or so. Yeah. And we encourage folks to make sure you get out and vote. Well, I appreciate you taking time stopping by. Thank you for letting me stop in.
About the Author
