Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024
Vol. 5, No. 21
PCMExplorer Local People. Local Stories.
Iowa Caucuses less than a week away
Caucus locations set for Jasper County communities By Jamee A. Pierson PCM Explorer The first in the nation Iowa Caucuses are less than a week away with locals interested in the political process gathering the evening of Jan. 15. There are a variety
of locations assigned to citizens of Jasper County depending on the township they reside. They include: • Clear Creek-Independence — Baxter City Hall — 203 S. Main St., Baxter • Mound Prairie-Poweshiek-Washington, Colfax 1, Colfax 2 and Colfax 3 — Colfax Mingo Elementary School — 20 W. Broadway St., Colfax • Des Moines — PCM Middle School Library — 407 E. Plainsman Rd., Prairie City
• Fairview — PCM High School Library — 400 IA 163 Bus., Monroe • Hickory Grove — Kellogg United Methodist Church — 417 Second St., Kellogg • Buena Vista-Elk Creek, Lynngrove-Richland — Lynnville Sully Middle School — 1246 Hwy F 62 E., Sully • Malaka-Newton-Sherman, Newton 1-1, Newton 1-2, Newton 2-1, Newton 2-2, Newton 3-1, Newton 3-2, Newton 4-1, Newton 4-2, Palo Alto — Berg Mid-
dle School — 1900 N. Fifth Ave. E., Newton To participate, an individual must be a registered member of the party caucus they are attending. A person cannot be registered to no party. The individual must be 18 years old by the upcoming Election Day of the election year, Nov. 5 for 2024. A 17-year-old can participate as long as they will be 18 by Nov. 5. Participants must also reside in the precinct they are caucusing in.
ROZENBOOM:
Transparency needed to ensure no foreign, corporate ownership of Iowa farmland State senator’s priorities for 2024 legislative session focus on agriculture, natural resources By Christopher Braunschweig PCM Explorer
Editor’s note: The following is the second of three articles going over Jasper County lawmakers’ priorities for the 2024 legislative session. Although Iowa Sen. Ken Rozenboom is chair of the education committee, it is actually his work on the agricultural and natural resources committees that is driving his personal list of priorities for the 2024 legislative session, which includes taking a hard look at who is buying Iowa farmland. Specifically, Rozenboom wants to address concerns of any foreign ownership and Rozenboom corporate ownership. While there there are laws prohibiting the purchase or acquisition of Iowa farmland from foreign businesses and governments, there is a strong feeling there may be some “very deep pockets” inappropriately involved. With his strong background in agriculture, Rozenboom is greatly concerned about potential foreign investment in farmland in Iowa and across the country. He is also concerned about corporate ownership. Again, there are laws limiting corporate influence on farmland, but he has doubts everyone is in compliance. “For almost two years now, we’ve been digging into this with the Department of Agriculture, with the Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office,” Rozenboom said. “Not a new issue to me. But it’s not been very high-profile. We think we need to tighten up some laws.” Currently, Rozenboom is working with the attorney general’s office to see what the Iowa Legislature can do to tighten up its laws. “With the corporate structures and LLCs, we’re just not quite sure who is buying some of this land,” he said. “The real problem is these folks seem to have very deep pockets. They can blow any Iowa farmer out of the water. If they want a piece of land, their pockets are always deeper than our farming community.” Considering Iowa’s identity as a predominantly agricultural entity, the state’s economy is very dependent on farming. There is also a culture of family farms to consider. Rozenboom laments the thought
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of corporations or foreign entities running traditional farming families out of business. “They can’t compete for land ownership,” he said. “It’s just not a healthy way to go at all. We have some corporations that have farming connections maybe in Iowa, but they also have maybe manufacturing some other interests and they’ve received help from the state or economic development help.” Then Iowa finds those companies competing with neighbors for landownership. Which does not sit well with Rozenboom. Especially if taxpayers are helping the corporation with their business operations and then they, in turn, compete against other Iowans. Rozenboom said, “That doesn’t strike me as appropriate.” Ultimately, he added, what lawmakers are afraid of is foreign companies or corporations using “front people” to make land purchases. “And we don’t know who is behind the curtain,” he said. “We don’t know that, and that’s the problem. There is a corporation ownership law in the books that prohibits corporate ownership. There are parameters and thresholds. But there is a reporting requirement where they report purchases to the secretary of state.” While thousands of those transactions are on record at the secretary of state’s office, Rozenboom fears they are going into a file with no scrutiny. “I’ve looked at some of those reports, and we see an LLC and we don’t know who is behind the LLC,” he said. “We don’t know if it’s appropriate or not. That’s a concern. Maybe there’s nothing there. And that’s fine if there’s nothing there. But we need transparency on this. Right now we don’t have enough transparency.” WATER QUALITY UNLIKELY TO SEE ANYTHING NEW For years, Rozenboom has worked on water quality, a somewhat polarizing topic. Several critics say the state has made no real improvements to water quality, an assertion Rozenboom has adamantly denied in the past. Although he does not expect lawmakers to introduce anything new this year, it is something to monitor. Even though he has nothing new to propose in regard to water quality, it still remains a priority for Rozenboom. The state senator wants to continue to see progress and results, though he did acknowledge it will likely take some time to correct issues caused by fertilizer runoff from ROZENBOOM | 2
Metro Photo Agricultural issues no doubt affect Iowans and the rest of the country. We scoured headlines to find out what every candidate in the 2024 presidential election has said about political issues that impact farmers, such as the carbon capture pipeline, climate change legislation and ethanol, among others.
How are candidates approaching agricultural issues? See what presidential hopefuls are saying about today’s farming challenges By Christopher Braunschweig PCM Explorer
Editor’s note: The following article originally appeared in the Fall 2023 edition of Central Iowa AgMag as a way to show how certain candidates felt about agricultural issues at that particular time. As such, some information has been removed to better reflect the current candidates still in the race for the nomination. With the primaries for the upcoming presidential election coming up, I bet a lot of us are wondering what the candidates and incumbent are saying about farmers and the agricultural industry. Some folks may have already made up their mind on who they’re voting for, but I’m still curious what candidates have to say. So I’ve scoured through some of the latest headlines and campaign websites for any information I could find about candidates’ views on agriculture. Here’s what I’ve found: JOE BIDEN While farmers were waiting for fields to dry after a late October rainfall, President Joe Biden announced more than $5 billion in investments to rural communities. Funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction
Act and other programs will go towards advancing rural prosperity, economic development, competition and sustainability, according to a Nov. 1 press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Here is a breakdown of the funds: • $1.7 billion in investments in climate-smart agriculture practices. • $1.1 billion in investments in rural American infrastructure through loans/grants. • $2 billion in investments to partner with rural communities to create jobs, support rural-led economic development. • $274 million to expand critical rural high-speed internet infrastructure. • $145 million to expand access to renewable energy, lower energy costs for rural Americans. However, some pundits have criticized Biden’s green-focused approach to agriculture. In August 2023, Politico reported that even some advocates are not convinced it will help. Coupled with the negotiations to pass the farm bill (the results of which were unknown by press time), Biden might have an uphill battle. DEAN PHILLIPS & MARIANNE WILLIAMSON The president has primary challengers? You bet. Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, is
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the latest Democrat to enter the race. According to his campaign website, there is no platform for agriculture, but he does have priorities for clean water and climate action, among many other issues. During his tenure in Congress, Phillips focused on protecting access to clean water. The future health and well-being of Americans, he says, “relies on responsible stewardship of our waterways, forests, farmland, wetlands and public lands.” He is committed to a bipartisan approach to preserving clean water. Phillips says the effects of climate change are being seen and felt by everybody, and American has to resume its role as a global leader in addressing the crisis. Incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act will help lower energy costs and the speed of the transition to a clean energy economy, Phillips says. Marianne Williamson, a Texas-born author and speaker, also does not have a catch-all “agriculture” platform, but she does have policies on climate action and food safety. Williamson says global warming harms weather patterns which harms agriculture/animals which harms people’s capacity to live in certain areas. CANDIDATES | 3
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