Iowa Legislators Focus on Young Farmers and Agriculture Production
Iowa Agriculture Committee to aid young farmer production and opportunity
Iowa’s House Agriculture Committee is looking to enlist an Iowa legislator to assist with one of the most important legislative goals for the upcoming session: getting more young people involved in Iowa agriculture production. This is according to a recent Quad City Times news article.
The article shows Rep. Pat Grassley, the 29 year-old grandson of Rep. Chuck Grassley, is teaming up with Rep.-elect Bobby Kaufmann, a 27 year-old livestock farmer and small business owner from Wilton and a fellow member of the Agriculture Committee, to start the process of getting more young people involved in Iowa agriculture. Grassley and Kaufmann will begin the process by reviewing what needs to be altered to ensure young farmers can achieve financial growth as they start their careers.
The article shows plans to begin this process are already taking form. Grassley intends to work with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which he said has between 30,000 and 40,000 acres of tillable land under its control. He says, “I can envision a way in which beginning farmers would have one of the first seats in line” to have an opportunity to farm some of that ground. Determining which young farmers have this opportunity could be done through a lottery system.
Iowa’sagriculture industry could be on the path to continued success through an increased focus on agriculture production. In the future, input from young farmers could assist in growing Iowa’s agricultural production.