Stories

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack has been tapped to be the nation’s next Secretary of Agriculture, and most observers greeted the selection warmly.

In an interview with IowaPolitics.com, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said he will not rule out a possible run for governor in 2010 against incumbent Gov. Chet Culver.

A federal program designed to protect environmentally sensitive farmland may be losing some of its luster.

Thousands of U.S. farmers have a decision to make this month, as they must choose to either keep their acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) or put those acres into crop production.

The GOP started out the week by unanimously approving a platform that calls for an end to the federal renewable fuels standard. And in their convention speeches the party’s standard bearers — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska — hardly mentioned biofuels as part of the energy mix of the future.

The Iowa Independent conducted a telephone interview on Thursday afternoon with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, a Republican proponent of ethanol and biofuels who was at the convention all week.

“I want to tell you, we will disagree from time to time,” said McCain. “I believe in renewable fuels. I don’t believe in ethanol subsidies. But I believe in renewable fuels.”

Many farmers in Iowa are facing a disaster as storms and floods have damaged crops across much of the state.

In a telephone interview Friday, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey told Iowa Independent that corn and soybean crops in Iowa are under serious stress because of incessant rain and flooding.

When Congress returns to work Dec. 3 after a two-week recess there will be a brief window of opportunity to get the 2007 Farm Bill finished.

Here in Iowa, farmers are already making plans for next year’s crops — without knowing how federal farm programs will be structured. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said in [...]

What is Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey most often asked about as he travels the state?
New opportunities in the renewable fuels industry? Iowa's water quality and how to improve it? The evils of factory farms? Nope, nope and nope.
Deer. It's all about those beautiful antlered critters that roam every nook and cranny of our state.
Northey [...]

You've undoubtedly heard the bad news. Food prices at the grocery store are up, and of course, renewable fuels are to blame. Mainstream news media outlets have been raising the alarm all summer.
Like this June Washington Post article, which boldly declared that "the corn price increases flow like gravy down the food chain, to grocery [...]

It’s often said that family farms are the bedrock upon which Iowa is built.

Agriculture is the driving force of rural Iowa’s economy, and farm land is a precious gift that is passed from one generation to the next.

Farms that are kept in the same family through the generations are cherished in our state, and those [...]