March 5, 2015
By Kathie Obradovich
Presidential candidates (click here) need to do more than just wear a seed-corn cap and get their eggs in the right baskets on farm issues to impress Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and other Iowa voters.
"I wouldn't want somebody to just walk in and say, 'I'm against California on eggs, I'm for RFS,' and just check the boxes trying to get the positions right," Northey, a Republican, said. "They better explain why … and they should be able to fit that into their overall philosophy of government, if they've thought through those things."
About a dozen potential GOP presidential candidates will be put to the test Saturday at the Iowa Ag Summit,
a daylong forum at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Northey will be leaving
Saturday on a U.S. Department of Agriculture trip to Asia and will miss
most of the summit. But, he said, he'll follow it closely.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, is planning to attend. She said she wants to hear potential candidates encouraging support for more types of voluntary soil and water conservation practices and nutrient management.
What's important to her, she said, is "knowing that they understand that these are important to not just Iowa but all of our agricultural communities across the United States and hoping that they understand that again, a one-size-fits-all approach from the federal government does not work for every state."...
By Kathie Obradovich
Presidential candidates (click here) need to do more than just wear a seed-corn cap and get their eggs in the right baskets on farm issues to impress Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and other Iowa voters.
"I wouldn't want somebody to just walk in and say, 'I'm against California on eggs, I'm for RFS,' and just check the boxes trying to get the positions right," Northey, a Republican, said. "They better explain why … and they should be able to fit that into their overall philosophy of government, if they've thought through those things."
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, is planning to attend. She said she wants to hear potential candidates encouraging support for more types of voluntary soil and water conservation practices and nutrient management.
What's important to her, she said, is "knowing that they understand that these are important to not just Iowa but all of our agricultural communities across the United States and hoping that they understand that again, a one-size-fits-all approach from the federal government does not work for every state."...
