(Radio Iowa) – The latest “Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll” answers the question of what we should call the men and women who grow the crops and livestock in our state.   J. Arbuckle runs the I-S-U Extension poll and says he noticed that people who work with those in agriculture tend to call them growers or producers. He put a question in the poll and the result was pretty clear, with 75 percent preferring the term “farmer.” Ten percent said they want to be called farm operator, eight percent preferred producer, while rancher and grower each received two percent of the vote. Arbuckle says it’s not surprising, as farmer is an all-encompassing term that indicates more of a lifestyle than a profession. But he says he didn’t anticipate that it would be as big percentage. He says everyone should know what farmers think to be able to communicating effectively with them.

“It’s important for people across the private and public sectors, you know stakeholders who work with farmers, to recognize that and to use the kinds of terminologies that farmers prefer,” Arbuckle says. He says no one seemed to ask the question before. “It’s just very interesting to me that the terminology that we at the university and then some of the private sector firms, and even the public sector, like the conservation agencies and stuff, often times use the term grower or producer,” he says. “And these are actually the least popular terms that the farmers think about when they when they think about terms that they would like to when they think about themselves, I guess.”

You can see more about the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll on the I-S-U Extension website.

(Radio Iowa) – A series of regional educational conferences for Iowa hog farmers will be held this week at four strategic locations around Iowa. Zoey Dinkla is producer education director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association, which is helping put on the seminars.  Dinkla says, “The Iowa Pork Producers Association, the Pork Industry Center and Iowa State Extension and Outreach partner together to meet our production employees, our veterinarians, and any swine industry stakeholders, bringing them educational material, updates to the industry, and any kind of engagement that we can get with our producers where they are.”

She says there are several nationally-known speakers who will be sharing their knowledge at the conferences, including: “This year, we have Dr. Brett Kaysen with the National Pork Board,” Dinkla says. “He’s the senior vice president of producer and state engagement, so he’ll be discussing program of states that they’ve been working really hard in domestic and international markets, as well as all their success in foreign animal disease preparedness and prevention.”

The meetings are being held today (February 19th) in Orange City, February 20th in Webster City, February 21st in Nashua, and February 22nd in Washington.
iowapork.org

(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s cleared an Iowa Senate committee targets protein products marketed as meat, but that are made from insects, plants or even stem cell cultures. Selling something labeled as beef, chicken, pork, turkey, goat or lamb that contains even a small percentage of protein that’s not meat would become illegal in Iowa. The fine for the crime would be 855-dollars and the potential for up to 30 days in jail. Senator Dawn Driscoll, a Republican from Williamsburg, is the bill’s sponsor.

“We are trying to promote meat in the state of Iowa,” Driscoll says, “and we are trying to not mislead customers.” Driscoll raises Angus cattle on her family farm in Iowa County. “Our taxpayer dollars should be supporting our agriculture here in Iowa, not some hedge funding fake meat company,” Driscoll says. “…We are also protecting the consumers as far as labeling.” The bill would prohibit the three state universities from conducting research into the production or use of manufactured protein products.

“The Regent universities are not doing it now,” Driscoll says. “We’re setting a precedent in Iowa.” Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, says cutting off research is unwise. “We may learn things that are dangerous from cultivated food products. We may learn things that can have potential healing properties that were never thought of before,” Boulton said. “This bill seems to have the effect of knocking the peanut out of George Washington Carver’s hand before he could get started.”

Senator William Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says the bill pits the livestock industry against farmers who’re raising protein-rich soybeans. “We need to continue to have research on all our products so that we can have value added agriculture in this state,” Dotzler said.

If the bill becomes law all of the state’s school districts, Iowa’s community colleges as well as Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I would be required to have policies preventing the purchase of plant- or insect-based food labeled as meat.