Harrison and Crawford County Host Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Candidate Forum

            The Harrison/Crawford County Corn Growers Association hosted a candidate forum for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. The forum was held on May 23^rd at the Boulders Conference Center in Denison, Iowa. The event provided citizens from West Central Iowa to hear from the candidates before the upcoming Republican primary on June 5 and ultimately the general election this coming November.

            The six candidates present are all in competition for the Secretary of Agriculture position for the state of Iowa.  Former Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey accepted a position serving as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service in Washington D.C. The current Iowa Secretary of Agriculture is Mike Naig, who is a candidate in this forthcoming race.

Those six candidates in alphabetical order include:

• Ray Gaesser, a farmer and former President of the American Soybean Association
• Tim Gannon a farmer, crop insurance agent and a former USDA official for Tom Vilsack
• Chad Ingels, a farmer and former Iowa State University Extension Watershed Specialist
• Craig Lang, a farmer and former President of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation
• Mike Naig, current Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, formerly the Deputy Sec. of Agriculture
• Dan Zumbach, a farmer, and current Iowa State Senator

            The two-hour discussion was moderated by veteran Farm Broadcaster and former Iowa Corn District 4 Field Manager, Bruce Gaarder. The program started with the candidates answering prepared questions from the corn growers on trade, water quality, ethanol, livestock and many other topics before opening the floor up to questions from the audience.

            Larry Buss, Iowa Corn Growers Association member and Iowa Corn Promotion Board Director for District 4 attended the event.  “The Harrison/Crawford County Corn Growers were especially pleased to host the forum because the Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture position is so important to Iowa’s economy, especially to the corn industry,” stated Harrison/Crawford Corn Growers President Buss, a farmer from Logan and a “We were glad that all six candidates were able to participate and that they took the time to come and talk with us. I personally would like to thank them for stepping up and competing for this position that they realize is so vital. The forum went quite well. The corn growers developed some questions for each of the candidates to answer. All their answers were great, and we had good audience attendance and participation. All in all, it was a great evening held by the county corn growers.”

            Learn more about local county and district events around the state, by going to iowacorn.org. Stay connected this summer through social media and by following our upcoming blogs about each event as well as posts about some of our local corn growers and their farming operations. To stay up to date go to Iowacorn.org/summerroadtrip. We’ll see you on the road!