Rod Roberts

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rod Roberts was the guest of the Clay County Tea Party Patriots Thursday night, and he used the opportunity to draw distinctions between himself and former Gov. Terry Branstad.

Roberts focuses his remarks on his fiscal record and ideas such as eliminating the corporate income tax and his proposed constitutional amendment limit state spending to 99 percent of projected revenue. When the forum was turned over to public questions, it offered Roberts to opportunity to look back at Branstad’s 16 years in office and explain what he’d do differently.

From the Spencer Daily Reporter:

He stated he would not have expanded legalized gambling, nor would he have diverted dollars from the road use tax fund to pay the Iowa State Patrol, a practice current Gov. Chet Culver wants to reinstate.

Roberts also hit the conservative high points: he will fight to overturn an Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage and protect Iowans’ right to carry a firearm. The Carroll Republican even advocated for an expansion of nuclear power in Iowa, as well as the expansion of coal-fire plants, ethanol and biodiesel.

Though most observers believe the GOP primary is really a two-man race — between Branstad and Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats — the increasingly heated battle between those two chief rivals has some convinced Roberts could become the surprise candidate of 2010.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement rallied supporters in the lobby of Wells Fargo's downtown branch (photo by Michael Swanger/Iowa Independent).

While customers and bank employees looked on, five busloads of CCI members quietly streamed into the lobby of Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Des Moines, shouting in unison “Bust up big banks” and “Put the people first.”

“I’m just very angry,” said 81-year-old Ferol Wegner of Des Moines, a widow who lost her retirement savings in the financial crisis. “Everyone here has lost money in their 401ks or retirement funds because the banks have devastated our economy, yet the taxpayers paid for the bailouts of these large corporate banks. I’m here to stand up and see that justice is served.”

After a few minutes in the bank lobby, security and Des Moines police asked the protesters to leave, which they did. Wells Fargo officials were not available for comment.

The protesters, who were also joined by members of the Chicago-based National People’s Action, walked across the street and crammed themselves into the small lobby of Bank of America, where they repeated their protests before once again being asked to leave by police.

No arrests were made at either bank.

“The banks know that we are unhappy with what happened with the financial meltdown. They know it’s their fault,” said Mike McCarthy, a CCI member from Des Moines. “They think it’s business as usual. But it’s unjust for them to think they will continue the way they have been in the wake of the country’s financial meltdown. We are here to see that this doesn’t happen again to our children and grandchildren.”

Tuesday’s bank protests were the culmination of CCI’s “Showdown at the Statehouse,” a day-long event in which CCI members called upon elected officials to rein in corporate power and to support campaign finance reform. But the biggest issue of the day was CCI’s message to the banks.

Protesters rallied outside downtown banks in Des Moines (photo by Michael Swanger/Iowa Independent).

“Big banks, like Wells Fargo and Bank of America, and Wall Street crashed our national economy and our state budgets. They must do their part to fix it,” said Judy Lonning of Des Moines. “We want their bonuses.”

At the heart of CCI’s argument are reports of banks that have received federal government bailout money but are now reporting profits and doling out billions of dollars in bonuses to employees. Last week, it was reported that Wells Fargo in 2009 enjoyed a record-setting $12.3 billion in net income and total revenue of more than $88 billion.

In addition to setting record profits and paying lavish bonuses, CCI claims that big banks are funneling millions of dollars to lobbyists to block meaningful financial reform; increasing consumer fees; failing to modify enough loans to keep families in their homes; and financing payday lenders that “rip off our communities.”

“Wells Fargo and Bank of America are hurting hardworking families,” said CCI member Vern Tigges of Carroll. “Our state budget deficits could be wiped out if the big banks gave their total bonus packages — estimated to be about $140 billion — back to our states. For all intents and purposes, their bonuses are our bonuses because we bailed them out and put them back in working order.”

CCI contends that the $140 billion reported to be paid in bonuses, benefits and compensation by the nation’s six biggest banks — Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley — could nearly fill the $142 billion total budget gap for all 50 states in fiscal year 2010.

In Iowa, budget deficits have resulted in across-the-board cuts that have forced layoffs, employee furloughs and cuts to vital services.

“I think it’s wrong what they’re doing,” said Veronica Guevara, an 18-year-old student at Marshalltown Community College, who works part-time at a community bank in her hometown. “We bailed them out and have got nothing in return.”

The move of the caucus to Saturday was a decision made by both Iowa Democrats and Republicans in hopes of increased attendance at the non-presidential event. Despite outrage from those religious groups that hold Saturday as their Sabbath, the Saturday caucus is viewed as experimental by the state parties, and its success or failure will likely be linked with attendance and participation.

Iowans who wish to participate in the precinct caucuses need not be pre-registered as either a Democrat or Republican. Voter registration forms will be available at the individual caucus sites. However, those who need to register before participating should arrive at least 15 minutes before the 1 p.m. start time to allow for paperwork completion.

Iowa Republicans have placed their full list of caucus locations on their Web site, and the Democratic Party has a tool on their site  that will search caucus locations by address.

Those in attendance will set delegates for upcoming county conventions, which will, in turn, feed delegates into conventions at the Congressional district and state levels. Members will also be selected to begin the party’s platform process, which is often more contentious than the ongoing conventions.

Delegates to the county convention who are then elected to be delegates to the district conventions, will elect key individuals to serve on the party’s state central committee.

Those who attend the precinct caucuses will also vie for positions on county-level central committees, which provide support and direction for a wealth of local and county candidates as well as those who want to serve in the legislature. These individuals can also go on to serve on central committees at the district level.

For Republicans in particular, there is the possibility of the later conventions, populated during the precinct caucuses, to determine the party’s gubernatorial, 2nd Congressional District and 3rd Congressional District nominees. That is, if none of the candidates seeking the party’s nomination receive 35 percent on the June primary ballot, the nominee will be chosen at convention. The Democratic primary for U.S. Senate also has a possibility, albeit remote, to be resolved at convention.

Only fully qualified political parties in Iowa — currently Democrats and Republicans — hold official caucuses. Other groups identified in Iowa law as “political organizations,” such as the Green Party and Libertarian Party, may or may not conduct caucus events at the same time as the official caucuses.

Amid the excitement of a new decade, the unresolved issues of 2009 and other years past are becoming more irksome and in need of solutions.

The Road to Recovery … or Not

The entire country watched in June 2008 as flood waters savaged downtown Cedar Rapids. The videos and pictures of the Cedar River overtaking downtown structures, destroying businesses and displacing residents were simultaneously heartbreaking and striking. Yet for every headline garnered by Cedar Rapids, another smaller Iowa town was left to cope with its own slow and tedious recovery without the benefit of national news crews.

Veterans Memorial Coliseum is shown drenched by flood waters on June 11, 2008. (file photo: Lynda Waddington/The Iowa Independent)

State officials have argued that all that could be done was done. They tout Iowa’s swift recovery, comparing the progress here to natural disaster recovery in other parts of the country. Yet even now families remain displaced, businesses are shuttered and Iowans, long known as America’s most politically intense residents, are becoming more and more disenchanted with government as a whole.

The few times that national cameras panned away from downtown Cedar Rapids, national viewers glimpsed thousands of working family homes drenched to their rooftops. Urban viewers were enchanted by footage of cows, herded onto a Vinton resident’s deck for protection from flood waters. Large portions of the residential area in the small town of Creston were damaged as a result of basement and ground-level flooding. No one can forget the images of a leveled Parkersburg following a May 2008 tornado. Many of the aftermath stories remain on public display at the state’s I-JOBS page, and much remains unfunded.

But once it is understood that the working class — farmers, nurses, shift workers, teachers and others — bore the brunt of Iowa’s disasters, it is much more easy to understand the state’s following economic downturn. Working class Iowans pay a disproportionate share of their income in state and local taxes, according to research by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership. This means that the very economic foundation of the state has been rattled by tornadoes, pounded by flood waters and then mostly left with empty platitudes of progress to bolster its continued support.

Those set aside in favor of corporate bailouts and unable to surf the tides of promised change remain disillusioned, confused and, at times, angry. Their way of life has not only been threatened, but, in many instances, decimated. Their long-held beliefs in the value of hard work, helping neighbors and self-reliance have been shaken and, for some, shattered. They no longer relate to a government that appears uncaring, and they no longer believe in political parties that provide soundbites that would be offensive if they weren’t so tired and humorous.

Iowa politics in 2010, despite being the vehicle by which reform and recovery could happen, have been regulated by those outside of Des Moines’ affluent circles to an oddity or, worse yet, a distasteful fairgrounds freak show. For when economic reality becomes too horrible, it is sometimes easier to grasp the nearest unfathomable boogyman than to confront the true monster on your doorstep.

It is in front of this backdrop of dismay and disconnect that Iowa politics will play in 2010, and it will factor into every facet of the state.

The Right to Love and Marry

Several participants in April's Tea Party protest at the state capitol advocated for legislators to allow a vote on same-sex marriage (file photo).

In April, same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa. As some state politicians rallied against the Iowa Supreme Court decision and others praised it, most Iowans quietly pointed to increased farm supply costs and skyrocketing health care payments.

But groups have galvanized on both sides of the issue and are preparing to continue the battles begun last year at the statehouse.

Same-sex marriage, depending on which group’s advisories you read, is either proof of society’s inevitable enlightenment or the complete downfall of all held dear. And while there are distinct minorities of Iowans on both sides of the issue who are ready to do whatever it takes to ensure that such marriages are the keystone of all action within the 2010 state legislature, many more residents are afraid that the battle over certain couples’ right to marry will overshadow the business that must take place if the state as a whole is to stand on firmer economic ground come summer.

But once your home has been washed away by flood waters, or blown apart by tornadoes, it is difficult to surmount a fight against another struggling family, traditional or non-traditional. By that same token, difficulties paying for needed prescriptions and sleepless nights worried about mortgage payments aren’t often precursors to a rising up against any perceived discrimination. It is hard to fight for anyone else, hard to stand on even preached moral principals, when the very ground beneath one’s feet remains the consistency of sand.

As a result, those who stand to lose the most by having the legislature dominated by political grandstanding on same-sex marriage could be the people who stay home, shaking their heads at a spectacle created and honed in 2010 election madness. Those who stand to gain the most — specifically, those who are paying more attention to November ballots than first quarter earnings statements — will be those who rejoice and revel in the folly.

Renewed Faith in Antitrust

Producing the nation’s food supply has always been a precarious occupation. Natural disasters, weather fluctuations and simple bad luck have historically plagued Iowa’s crop and livestock producers. It is part of the territory, and farmers have come to understand the roller coaster ride that often determines if their seasons will be profitable.

The past few years, however, a new unknown has emerged that many producers view as more threatening than those they’ve previously faced: Market concentration. Within each of the nation’s agricultural industries a few, large corporations have emerged that dominate the sector and, some producers have argued, use collusive and exclusionary tactics to drive independent and smaller operations out of business. The large corporations, on the other hand, argue that their market dominance and sheer size allow them to develop innovative techniques for smaller producers as well as lobby all farm interests before Congress.

While U.S. Supreme Court rulings and national policy have played a significant role in the changing landscape of America’s and Iowa’s agricultural sector, most producers believe the largest culprit to the woes they’re facing is lax government oversight of existing antitrust laws. And, in a move unprecedented in American history, federal agencies appear to be, if not actually siding with producers, at least willing to listen.

Throughout 2010, the U.S. departments of Justice and Agriculture will hold a series of workshops for discussions on possible anti-competitiveness in several key sectors — seed, poultry, dairy and other livestock. The first, which will focus on the seed industry, will take place in Ankeny this March. The workshops mark a significant change from “hands off” life under the George W. Bush administration, when the the U.S. Department of Justice oversaw and approved mergers between Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms (2007) to create the country’s largest hog processor, between Dean Foods Co. and Suiza Foods Corp. (2002) to create the largest milk processor and between JBS and Smithfield Beef (2008) to make one of the nation’s largest cattle feeders.

The U.S. Justice Department, which appears to be making good on then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s pledge for more scrutiny of American agriculture, has brought in Christine Varney, a woman who built a trust-busting reputation within the Clinton administration, to lead its antitrust division. This Justice Department, unlike all of its predecessors, isn’t sitting back and waiting on an anti-trust complaint. It is willfully and meticulously investigating possibilities before formal complaints arrive.

Exactly what this means to Iowa, which maintains critical economic interest in agriculture, remains unclear. Although Iowa has fared better than other states in supporting and maintaining family farms, and has recently found the benefit of promoting smaller organic operations, the state also has strong ties to the large corporations that have now fallen under scrutiny.

Immigrating to Jobs, Congress

Census figures estimate that roughly 450,000 people over the age of 65 live in Iowa, comprising about 15 percent of the state’s total population. By the year 2030, the percentage is expected to blossom to 22.5 percent of the state’s population, or more than 650,000 Iowans over the age of 65.

It is widely known that due to Iowa’s out-migration of younger (and often brighter) residents, as well as its traditionally slow birth and immigration rate, the state is poised to lose a U.S. congressional district following the 2010 census.

What is less discussed, however, is the fact that Iowa’s rural counties are aging more rapidly than urban areas. As of the 2000 census, individuals age 65 and over comprised 20 percent or more of the population in 30 of the state’s 99 counties. Not only are all the impacted counties from 2000 rural, but the U.S. Census Bureau believes that trend will encompass 88 of the state’s counties by 2030, affecting the most rural first. At that time Iowa is expected to be the 12th oldest state in the union.

The direct and indirect impacts to the state, the tax base, local workforces and wider rural geographic health are far too complex for adequate recount in this short discussion of interest areas for 2010 and the next decade. Just in the realm of ongoing federal health reform, for instance, the implications of Iowa communities with 40 percent or more of their populations over the age of 65 — Littleport, Elk Horn, Berkley, Athelstan and Beaconsfield during the 2000 census — makes it clear that providing insurance alone won’t be nearly enough. As The Iowa Independent has documented throughout 2009 in a series of articles on rural health, those residing in rural areas are more likely to be living at or below poverty levels, with more chronic conditions, without sufficient nursing and physician access and lacking critical infrastructure needed for advances in tele- or distance-medicine that might alleviate existing inadequacies.

The 11 Iowa counties projected to maintain a percentage of older residents below 20 percent in 2030 also tell a story. The population centers in Polk, Linn, Johnson, Black Hawk, Pottawattamie, Story, Woodbury and Dallas counties are included among them. The other three — Marshall, Muscatine and Wapello — are all considered rural counties with one big difference from the rest of the state’s other rural areas. Each is home to significant immigrant populations.

At the time of the 2000 census, 12.5 percent of the populations in Marshall, Muscatine and Wapello self-identified as being either Hispanic or Latino. The latest estimates for each of the counties now lists that population demographic at above 15 percent. While this percentage compared to other states would not be considered significant, it stands out in Iowa, a state with an overall estimated percentage of persons of Hispanic and Latino origin at roughly 4 percent.

Iowans, who continue to express both outrage and compassion in the aftermath of a massive immigration raid at a Postville meatpacking plant, are only now starting to come to terms with their desire for maintaining the status quo in rural areas and the true need for a larger and younger workforce. Stephen Bloom, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa and author of a book on Postville, spoke candidly with The Iowa Independent seven months after the raid, noting that the move of slaughterhouses out of cities and into rural areas as well as mechanical advancements in the process has changed the face of rural America.

“The industry now requires a revolving door of employees because the wages are, if not minimum, then very low,” Bloom said. “The locals in these rural pockets don’t want to work for that kind of salary. The plants have this voracious appetite for hiring more and more people because a slaughterhouse worker who works for a year at the same plant is working for an extraordinary amount of time. The turnover in a year is nearly 100 percent.”

Workforce challenges in rural areas, however, are not only limited to meatpacking plants and other large factories. Iowa’s stalwart economic industry, the one most closely associated with rural life, is also beginning to feel the crunch.

At a congressional listening post in October, Clinton County dairy farmer Ben Blanchard discussed both his operation’s need for long-term younger workers and the nation’s need for comprehensive immigration reform.

“The way I feel, and I know that others may not feel the same way, but there needs to be legislation to allow [immigrants} to come over and not just on a work permit or whatever for six months,” Blanchard said, noting that short-term immigration solutions do not allow for farm knowledge and animal consistency.

There is no question that 2009 was an historic year for the Hawkeye State. From the Iowa Supreme Court decision in April legalizing same-sex marriage to Iowa’s U.S. senators becoming instrumental in the health care reform debate that raged in the nation’s capital to the Republicans with 2012 dreams looking for some caucus karma, there was no shortage of big stories in 2009.

But this isn’t about those stories. Quite the opposite, actually. This is about the stories that, for one reason or another, fell through the cracks, at least in Iowa. And while it’s far from an exhaustive list, it does show why a wide variety of media voices is important. More eyes on the hunt for the overlooked stories helps ensure they don’t remain overlooked forever.

Here are a few of Iowa’s most overlooked and under reported stories of 2009, as reported by The Iowa Independent.

Iowa’s coal ash rules could pose threat to public health

Over the course of 2009, The Iowa Independent meticulously laid out the problems with Iowa’s rules governing coal ash, eventually leading to the state’s largest public universities deciding to implement groundwater testing at the coal ash disposal site they share.

Can chemical abortions be linked to Midwestern ag?

Driving across a rural Iowa highway, anti-abortion signs are almost as common a sight as farmers spraying crops. Now there is a growing body of evidence linking the substances sprayed on fields to human reproductive health issues, including unintended abortions.

Farmer suicides spotlight lack of mental health care in rural America

The psychological attachment farm families feel for their land and livestock is one of the lessons of the 1980s farm crisis — a time when farmer suicides and rural violence made front page news across the nation. Back then, Iowa and Nebraska, two states severely impacted by the farm crisis, developed crisis hotlines designed specifically to serve the needs of agricultural workers. Today, in the wake of natural disasters and in the midst of economic uncertainty, the hotlines are experiencing a spike in activity, likely helping to prevent more tragedies.

Wells Fargo accused of racial discrimination in Des Moines lending practices

Research shows that minority homeowners in Des Moines are three times as likely to receive high-cost subprime mortgage loans from Wells Fargo & Co. as white homeowners.

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham catches flak for PAC-funded trips

More than 25 percent of funds raised by Rep. Tom Latham’s political action committee during the 2008 election cycle paid for trips to resorts around the country, including golf outings in West Virginia and a weekend getaway to Atlantic City, N.J.

Iowa study finds worrisome arsenic levels in private water wells

A two-year study found that the Hawkeye State’s rural private drinking water wells “have several contaminant problems, some long-standing and some emerging.”And while nitrate and bacteria detections were expected despite efforts to address such contamination, the presence of arsenic was potentially worrisome.

The department is implementing a new program, the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Program, which was authorized by the 2010 agriculture appropriations bill and will provide loss assistance payments to eligible dairy farmers.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (file photo)

“I have personally heard from hundreds of struggling dairy farmers from all across the country who have been hit hard by declining prices over the past year, and now, we’ll be able to offer them help,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Milk prices declined substantially through early-to-mid-2009, with the national price for milk averaging $16.80 per hundredweight (cwt) in the fourth quarter of 2008 and averaging $12.23 cwt in the first quarter of 2009, an overall 27 percent decline. The price U.S. dairy producers received for milk marketed in the summer of 2009 was about half of what it cost them to produce it.

Eligible producers will receive a one-time direct payment based on the amount of milk both produced and commercially marketed by their operation during the months of February through July 2009. Production information from these months will be used to estimate a full year’s production for an operation to calculate payments, using a 6 million pound per dairy operation limit.

Dairy producers who have production records at the USDA Farm Service Agency county office because they participated in another FSA dairy program do not need to apply for the program. The agency will use the existing production records to calculate and issue payments. Those who have not provided records to their local FSA, and have not yet been contacted to do so, will have until Jan. 19, 2010 to apply. Officials estimate, however, that more than 95 percent of eligible producers will receive benefits without having to complete a new agency application.

A national per hundred weight payment rate will be determined by dividing the available funding of $290 million, less a FSA reserve for new applicants and appeals, divided by the total pounds of eligible milk production approved for payment. The FSA is currently estimating that 875 million cwt of milk production will be eligible for payment, and that the expected payment rate is approximately 32 cents per cwt.

U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, a Democrat who represents Iowa’s 3rd District and a senior member of the House Committee on Agriculture, applauded the swift implementation of the new program, noting that “Iowa’s 2,390 dairy farms have been struggling as milk prices have declined substantially this year.”

In order to be eligible for the program, the dairy producer and the dairy operation in which the producers has a share:

• Must have produced milk in the U.S. and marketed milk commercially at any time from February through July 2009
• Must have milk production data for those months, and must certify to all milk production from the dairy operation during the time frame
• Have an annual adjusted gross nonfarm income of less than $500,000 for calendar years 2006 through 2008

Full program information and eligibility requirements can be found on the FSA/USDA Web site.

The DELAP program is one emergency dairy assistance programs that has been implemented by the USDA in response to the producers’ economic crisis. The agency has previously increased the price that they paid dairy farmers for products through the Dairy Product Price Support Program from August through October 2009. The USDA’s Dairy Export Incentive Program was also reactivated to help exporters meet prevailing world food prices and encourage the development of export markets in areas where the U.S. products are not competitive due to subsidized dairy products from other countries. The agency also established a Dairy Industry Advisory Committee.

Update 12/18/2009, 2:50 p.m. — Gov. Chet Culver released the following statement in connection with the implementation of the DELAP program: “2009 has been a tough year for Iowans — especially our dairy producers, and I want to thank President Obama, Secretary Vilsack and the Obama administration for creating this program and providing immediate relief to dairy producers. We know that there is still much work to do, but this announcement is a great holiday present for the thousands of Iowans who make a living producing milk and other dairy products. As Governor, I will continue to do all I can to help not only dairy producers, but all Iowa farmers who have suffered this year from low prices. I look forward to continuing our work with the Obama administration, our federal partners, and all Iowans as together we help this vital industry and build a brighter future for the state.”

At the WH Christmas Ball Monday night, they served ACORN cookies

The Congressman also posted a link to the following photograph of his find.

As The Iowa Independent previously reported, King and other Republican members of Congress have demanded an investigation into ACORN, a grassroots organization that strives to be a voice for low and moderate income Americans.

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, right, visits with Cedar Rapids flood victims on the one year anniversary of the massive 2008 floods (Iowa Independent file photo).

However, while the figure may be massive it remains less than a third of the $3.6 billion in disaster recovery funds that have been promised to Iowa.

While more than 20 individual funding streams exist, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s funds have been the most utilized by Iowans. The agency’s Other Needs Assistance (ONA) funds, jointly administered by FEMA and the Iowa Department of Human Services for victims immediately following a disaster, has spent all but roughly $1 million of the $136.5 million allocated to Iowa.

More than $750 million of the total disaster recovery funds promised to Iowa remains unallocated or earmarked for specific projects or entities.

State officials involved in recovery efforts are to quick to point out that such a massive recovery will take time, and that especially mitigation projects need to be methodical and thoughtful in order to prevent future disasters. They also point to the fact that Iowa remains ahead of other natural disaster sites in the nation in terms of receiving and distributing recovery funds.

Much of the recovery effort in Iowa centers in northeastern Linn and Johnson counties, where Cedar Rapids and Iowa City were both hard-hit by June 2008 floods. Local officials in Cedar Rapids, who were displaced from their facilities by the flood, continue to debate and accept public comment regarding the future of certain structures. Until plans such as those are closer to reality, it is difficult for the Rebuild Iowa Office or other state and federal agencies to allocate funds to the projects.

According to figures from the Rebuild Iowa Office, more than 39,800 Iowans have registered with FEMA, and more than 35,000 Iowans have visited disaster recovery centers throughout the state. In addition to the 85 Iowa counties eligible for federal assistance, 77 counties are also eligible for state and public assistance.

A detailed look at the various funding streams, the amounts that have been promised/allocated to Iowa, what’s been approved for local use and the totals spent as of Dec. 4 are in the chart below:

The Iowa Legislature Web site also makes a document available for download with estimated disaster recovery funding by county.

When Iowa Department of Public Health officials planned their health provider flu vaccinations, they learned that many Iowa providers were above the recommended age requirements to receive the live virus H1N1 vaccination. In fact, no providers in Van Buren County were below the cut off age of 49.

Expanding insurance coverage is important, experts say, but that is only half the battle. For many Americans, particularly in rural parts of the country, access to high quality health care services could remain elusive.

“We have some serious challenges in Iowa as it relates to the number of providers that we have,” said Tom Newton, executive director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. “We do have a high percentage of our population in Iowa that is insured at this time, and I would tell you that even some of them struggle right now to get access to health care. You can’t just assume that by providing people with a source of payment that you’ve provided them with access to health care.”

As The Iowa Independent has previously reported, the Hawkeye State, like many other rural states, is coping with a plummeting number of health care professionals, including specialists, primary care physicians, nurses and behavioral health professionals.

While several factors such as perceived career stress and compensation issues are at the root of the decline, the problem is also being amplified by a rapidly aging health care workforce.

As a part of H1N1 flu response and vaccination plan development for health care providers, Newton said he spoke with a public health administrator in Van Buren County about the department’s plan to utilize flu mist, a live-virus vaccination that is delivered through the nose like a nasal spray. Because that vaccination contains a live virus, its use has been restricted to certain age groups.

“Health care providers were going to be our targeted audience for using flu mist, at least in some cases. But, in Van Buren County they do not have any health care providers that are under the age 49,” Newton said, noting that regulations prohibit anyone 49 and up from using the live virus. “That presents problems for us from a vaccination standpoint, but what does that say about health care providers in those communities? There are probably going to be some of those folks who are eligible to retire within five years.”

The alarming demographics and shrinking number of health care workers in rural areas are not just limited to primary care doctors. Other components of health care are also in short supply in much of Iowa.

“We aren’t just talking about those people that are traditionally thought of as health care providers – it’s dentists, it’s mental health and it’s even pharmacy,” said Cheryll Jones, a southeastern Iowa pediatric nurse practitioner who serves on the board of the Iowa Rural Health Association. “There aren’t necessarily huge numbers of pharmacies in rural areas. So, even if you have a provider, you may have to travel a fair distance to get your prescription filled.

“[Workforce] is a concern that we have, and not just for rural, but especially for rural. Certainly, the need for folks to have health insurance is important, and that is where a lot of the focus has been, but access to insurance does not equate to access to care.”

A declining and aging workforce is probably the most publicly visible of the challenges facing a health care system, but it is far from the only challenge for rural areas. According to Tim Size, executive director of the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, his state, like Iowa, has maintained a relatively low uninsured rate.

“We are very used to dealing with rural health in an environment where most people have insurance cards,” Size said. “People having insurance cards is much better than people not having insurance cards, but it doesn’t deal with the long, long list of issues that we have to struggle with.”

As health care companies react to the current global economic recession, there will be efforts to make health care services more centralized, which isn’t always in the best interest of rural consumers or providers.

“We need collaborative ways for rural to work with rural and for rural to work with urban that maintains services available in the rural areas,” Size said. “From that respect, we have to be very concerned about the economic incentives that will come with reform. … There are a lot of models floating around out there that have tended to be developed in urban communities and we need to be very cautious about those being mandated into rural communities without any demonstrating or testing of the idea.”

When it comes to the debate over improving health care, Newton said, “It all comes down to how you define access.” For many rural residents, the definition is likely to remain too narrow to make much of a difference.

As U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley prepared to leave the Delhi farm home of Larry and Nancy Stover, Nancy (right) served him coffee for the road. Although the gesture was one of pure hospitality on the part of the Stovers, it pretty much guarantees a return visit by the Congressman, who will need to return the family's travel mug.

The meeting between Braley and about 30 dairy families, which took place in the Delhi farm home of Larry and Nancy Stover, was intended to be an opportunity for the Congressman to hear directly from those who are being impacted by federal policy.

“Rural America hasn’t shrunk much in size, but has shrunk a lot in influence,” Braley said to open to the discussion. “Iowa is going to lose another congressional seat in 2012. That means that we are going to lose 20 percent of our clout in Congress, and that is not an insignificant thing.”

Ben Blanchard, who owns a large dairy (by Iowa standards) with his mother and two brothers in Clinton County, presented Braley with financial statistics based on his own operation, which weren’t too different than the stories told by dairy farmers throughout the nation. In 2007, their farm was doing well financially, but began to see revenues deteriorate in 2008. By 2009, the farm was receiving some of the lowest prices for its milk that it had ever experienced.

“This is for our farm of 700 cows for a nine-month period [in each of those three years], and you can see the average monthly expenses and then I provided our average monthly break-even price,” Blanchard said. “So, when you compare that to the price that we are paid, you see if we made above or below the break-even point. In 2009, you can see that even though our break-even point was better than it was in 2008, the milk was significantly lower, which resulted in a $4.42 per 100-weight loss. That amounts to a monthly loss of $64,800 for our dairy farm. Looking at the nine-month period for this year-to-date, we’ve lost $582,000.”

Although many of Iowa’s dairy operations are smaller and operated by family only, the Blanchard farm, and other larger operations, has a significant outlay in employee costs.

“We pay in payroll $350,000 over nine months,” Blanchard said. “There are a lot of people in our community Charlotte and in Clinton County as a whole who depend on our dairy farm. … So, when we are hurting, the community is hurting.”

As Braley noted, the available workforce pool in rural Iowa is quite different today than it has been previously.

“The way I feel, and I know that others may not feel the same way, but there needs to be legislation to allow them to come over and not just on work permit or whatever for six months,” said Blanchard, who noted that his family employs more than 20 immigrant workers.

Legislation that would allow immigrants to come into the U.S. and work for extended periods of time needs to be developed, according to the farmers in attendance, because short-term work permits do not provide for consistency in training and maintaining a workforce. Otherwise the available workforce for the areas in which farms exist has aged, and the few younger workers have learned that they can make better paychecks for less manual labor by working in retail establishment such as fast food.

“This put the complicated issue of immigration right out on the table,” Braley said. “There simply are no easy solutions… it isn’t just in dairy, it is in a host of different businesses. And, unfortunately, because immigration is such a controversial topic, we don’t seem to be able to have a meaningful, rational discussion on how we solve these problems.”

Norm Voelker, a farmer from Ryan, said there also needs to be a federal change in how the E-Verify system punishes employers that are attempting to do the right thing by utilizing the system to verify employment status of people they hire.

“Make an incentive for the people who need immigrant workers — and we definitely need immigrant workers. I’ve changed my thoughts on that during the past five years,” he said.  “[Those who hire immigrant workers] need a way that they can go online and easily verify whether this person actually should be here or not.”

In addition to workforce demands, an immediate concern for dairy farmers is farm-retail price differences. In 2007, according to Blanchard’s figures, consumers were paying roughly $3.50 for a gallon of milk at the store while farmers were receiving $1.50 per gallon for their raw milk. In 2008, those figures held steady with the consumer price increasing slightly to $3.80 per gallon and raw milk prices also increasing slightly to $1.66 per gallon. In 2009, however, the prices went lopsided with farmers being paid 89 cents per gallon of raw milk while consumers paid $3.15 per gallon.

“We pride ourselves — we have high production levels — we feel we are a very productive dairy farm. But then, as you write these numbers out, it’s almost heart-breaking,” Blanchard said.

Holsteins on Larry and Nancy Stover's farm could be seen through the kitchen window as dairy farmers gathered inside to discuss low milk prices. The Stovers are the third generation of their family to dairy farm on this piece of land near Delhi.

Larry Stover, who hosted the meeting in his home, is a fourth generation dairyman who runs a much smaller operation than the Blanchard family. On a typical day, he milks 90 Holsteins on the same farm that his family has run for three of those four generations.

“I think probably every dairy farmer in the country has taken equity off the balance sheet in order to keep going, to pay the bills,” Stover said. “And, in some instances, they’ve had to borrow more money to pay the bills — probably in a lot of instances. Other than that, you just try to do the best you can. You don’t dare skimp on too many costs because your cows won’t be there when the price comes back.”

Dairy farmers have recently experienced small increases in their milk prices, although they continue to be paid well below production costs. An informal poll by The Iowa Independent of those attending the meeting with Braley showed an average payment of $11.16 per hundred weight. Most operations require at least $14 per hundred weight in order to break even.

Most farmers, as Stover explained, have borrowed excess money to continue their operations, with the hope that the small increases are an indication that prices will continue to rise. The reality is, however, that the markets are being propped by incentives through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that include large commodity buys and herd culling. As a result, banks that have offered additional loans to dairy farmers are beginning to fear for their investments. Some banks are requiring that dairy farmers, who often cut their corn for livestock food, harvest it by combine it instead so that the crop can more easily be sold if the loans go south.

“I would like to say that this is just supply — just an over-abundance of supply. But at the same time, you have to think that everybody has to feed their kids,” Blanchard said. “Dairy products are one of the most nutritious things that you can feed to your families. I understand that exports are down and that people are hurting all over the world. Between here and there, one thing that I feel is that somebody’s got to be making that money because people are still paying it. I don’t know if they have reasons behind it, but when a processor is making record profits and we’re hurting and struggling to get by every day, it makes you really think.”

More than anything else, the dairy farmers who have made it through this extremely rough patch want assurances that the market which governs their price will not continue to be as volatile.

“The price of milk is starting to come up a little bit and, on the futures, it looks somewhat promising compared to where we’ve been,” said Doug Fairbanks, who farms near Anamosa. “A lot of us are established dairy farmers, so we’ve lived off some of our equity, and we’ve burnt that equity this summer. Those resources are tapped. Our lines of credit are full. If this corrects itself for six months or a year and then it happens again… it will devastate the dairy industry. … Just because you are still in business doesn’t mean that you’ve come out of this OK.”

Braley said that he received a great deal of information that will help him as he advocates for rural America in Washington, D.C.

“I’m a firm believer in the safety-net approach to agricultural commodities,” Braley told The Iowa Independent after the meeting. “When the bottom drops out of the marketplace, there have to be protections in place to continue our safe food supply. … I think most of the people here are interested in an opportunity to continue to do what they love and know that the federal government is not going to promote policies that will drive them out of business. And, at that same time, to have a safety net in place if they are at risk of losing their entire operation.”

In addition, Braley said that it is time for the government to start breaking up monopolies in the dairy industry and provide stricter oversight to ensure that the market is not being manipulated.

“We have deregulated so much that we have abdicated our oversight responsibility in many of these federal agencies, and we need to restore the public confidence that somebody is keeping an eye on speculators whose profit motivation is bad overall for the American economy,” he said.