The chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee told a Carroll audience that Barack Obama has done more to support Iowa farming in a few years than John McCain has in a political lifetime.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin

“To me this (Obama) could be a really good friend of ours in the White House to those of us who farm or live in rural communities,” U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said at a rural roundtable for Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois and the Democratic presidential candidate.

More than 30 people attended the 90-minute event in the Harold Bierl Room at the Carroll Depot.

In a wide-ranging presentation and question-and-answer session, Harkin said the issue with McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, is not about party politics. McCain is hostile to farm country and has the record show it, Harkin said.

“He (McCain) has ridiculed every farm bill we have had on the floor,” Harkin said.

McCain voted against the 2002 farm bill and has said that if he were president today he would veto the current farm bill — one which all seven of Iowa’s federal elected officials, including three Republicans, supported.

“I would have a hard time telling you when John McCain has ever stepped forward to help us on rural issues,” Harkin said.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who was fist elected to Congress in 1982, has voted against ethanol more than 10 times and opposed the wind production tax credits advocates like T. Boone Pickens say are crucial for the creation of a wind-power corridor through Iowa.

Harkin said Obama has been on board with Midwestern agriculture since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004 — and during his career in the Illinois State Senate.

Meanwhile, McCain opposes virtually all farm subsidies.

“I don’t support agricultural subsidies no matter where they are,” McCain said during a recent appearance in Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press. “The farm bill, $300 billion, is something America simply can’t afford.”

Harkin said the interests of agriculture and renewable energy intersect.

He thinks voters will see calls to drill for more oil as short-term pandering not in the interests of farm country — where more energy can be harvested along with food.

Harkin said Obama understands Iowa and other farming states will play a key role in transitioning the United States from oil to renewables — even if more oil is available domestically.

“We didn’t move to automobiles because we were running out of houses,” Harkin said. “And we didn’t move from candles to light bulbs because we were running out of wax.”

Harkin is joining U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in advocating a flex-fuel vehicle mandate. When one audience member jokingly asked Harkin if these vehicles could run on Templeton Rye, the senator replied, “Some stuff’s too good to put in the tank.”

Harkin had earlier toured the whiskey distillery in Templeton.