(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa farmer is appealing to members of Iowa’s congressional delegation to develop and pass a new Farm Bill before this fall, focusing on legislation that he says is climate-smart. Scott Henry, the owner of Longview Farms in Nevada, says farmers, consumers and the environment would all benefit from legislation that lead the transition to more sustainable food production. Henry says, “A climate-smart Farm Bill is one that allows farmers on a voluntary basis to adopt practices such as cover crops, no-till, prescriptive farming, split applications of nitrogen and other fertilizer sources that help reduce reliance upon synthetics, whether that be through livestock integration or biologicals.”

Henry grew up on the multi-generational family farm in Story County, where he grows corn and soybeans, and raises cattle. He was in Washington D-C last week, meeting with Iowa’s senators and members of congress, along with House and Senate Ag Committee staff. “For us, it’s really working towards making sure that farmers have knowledge about these tools and that those tools are available to them,” Henry says, “and to a certain extent, if there’s any incentive to help get a farmer started down that path, that would be good.”

Much of his farm’s corn crop was knocked flat by the powerful winds of the derecho in 2020 and Henry says they could’ve plowed it under and collected the insurance, but didn’t. Instead, they chose to use the combine, even moving forward at one-mile-an-hour, to harvest the corn off the ground.  “That was the most revealing thing to me in my farming career,” Henry says, “that these production practices that we had implemented really were making the crop resilient in a volatile weather pattern, but it still means we’ve still got to work hard and roll our sleeves up to get the work done.”

A new Farm Bill didn’t materialize last year, and Henry is urging our elected leaders to ensure passage of a progressive measure by this fall. “We’re on a one-year extension right now, that does come up I believe in September,” Henry says. “And the question right now is if we’ll have a new bill by that time, or still pass another extension, or if they’ll do nothing, which is a scenario I don’t think anybody wants. I truly hope that both sides can come together and we can get a Farm Bill that’s passed.”

Farmers and consumers shouldn’t be at odds, Henry says, and he calls this a rallying cry where everyone can have a seat at the same table with the common goal of a sustainable future.