From: Iowa Discussion, Alerts and Announcements
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of MJ Hatfield
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
5:13 AM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: Denise O'Brien
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Subject:
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NY Times Editorial on Secretary of Ag
Race
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Date:
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Tue,
10 Oct 2006 09:52:55 -0500
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New York
Times Editorial
A Farm Race in Iowa
Published: October
10, 2006
There is a governor’s race going on in Iowa
Culver vs. Nussle, a tossup but the race to watch is the one for secretary
of agriculture. Both candidates support ethanol production, and who wouldn’t
when ethanol has given Iowa the lowest fuel
prices in the nation? But otherwise they are about as different as it is
possible to be and still be an Iowan for agriculture. Bill Northey, a
Republican, farms corn and soybeans and has been endorsed by the Farm Bureau.
His Democratic opponent is Denise O’Brien, who raises poultry, apples and
strawberries. She and her husband farm organically, and her campaign vehicle is
a green biodiesel school bus.
The candidates capture a real split in the farm world in Iowa
and the nation as a whole. Mr. Northey proudly represents the industrial vision
of farming that has turned Iowa into the land of the two-crop, corn-soybean
rotation, a place where the chance to produce corn-based ethanol looks like
diversity. Ms. O’Brien has been unfairly accused of belonging to “fringe”
groups, and she is clearly not the Farm Bureau candidate. “Organic” is anathema
to the Farm Bureau. But she is a reminder that Iowa
would be better off with greater agricultural diversity, stronger communities
and a greater emphasis on the health of its natural resources.
The sharpest difference between these two candidates concerns the ability of
counties and towns to restrict the siting of feedlots and farm operations that
concentrate huge numbers of animals. Mr. Northey believes in a single set of
regulations across all of Iowa’s 99 counties.
Ms. O’Brien argues that factory farms should be regulated by the state but that
communities should be able to voice their concerns too. After all, they are the
ones who have to live downwind.