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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter November 2006 |
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Dates to BEE Remembered: Board Meeting IHPA Annual Meeting To add an important date to the list, contact
the Buzz by email at
The Buzz Picture Contest This picture was sent to us by Joanne Barnes. This picture of her grandson Martin is this month’s winner of the Buzz Picture Contest. Congratulations! Martin, on the right, was the honey gate keeper. Martin and a neighbor boy kept close watch over the freshly extracted honey.
A Farm Race in Iowa New York Times Editorial 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. Iowa Farmers Union
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