The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship today (Thursday) announced that eleven projects in Iowa have been selected to receive grant funding to help enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops.  The Department received $282,032 through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to support the program. Iowa agricultural non-profit organizations, cooperatives, specialty crop industry associations or organizations, and producer groups were eligible to apply for funding. The maximum grant award from the Department to sub-grantees is $24,000 and administrative and indirect costs are not allowed.

Among the grant recipients in southwest Iowa, is:

Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) in Oakland, which received $23,991. The organization is working with New Tree School, local growers, and other partners, to create new markets for sales of locally-sourced and locally–propagated native oak trees.  They will first identify public and private lands with old-growth oak trees from which to harvest acorns. Project partners such as farmers and landowners with an interest in propagating oaks will be identified and trained in proper growing practices.

Southern Iowa Resource, Conservation & Development, in Creston, received a $23,968 grant  for a project aimed to draw the millennial demographic to farmers markets. Southern Iowa Resource, Conservation & Development will use text message marketing and Facebook advertising, to exclusively promote specialty crop farmers’ market vendors at area farmers’ markets, in addition to radio and newspaper ads.

Other recipients include: Lutheran Services in Iowa – $24,000; Iowa State University of Science and Technology – $23,750; Iowa State University of Science and Technology- $23,968; Allamakee New Beginnings, Inc. dba Iowa Food Hub – $21,198; The James Gang dba Iowa Valley Global Food Project – $23,331; University of Northern Iowa – $17,186; Practical Farmers of Iowa – $24,000; Iowa State University Extension and Outreach – Johnson County Extension- $20,764; and, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Local Foods Program – $24,000.

Iowa Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said “The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program has supported a wide variety of projects here in Iowa in the past several years to promote locally grown products and we are excited to get another round of funding that will support food safety, research and marketing efforts.  Specialty crops are a very important part of Iowa agriculture as they allow farmers to diversify and give customers access to local foods and other products.”

“Specialty Crops” that are eligible under the program are fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.  The funds not passed through to Iowa organizations will be used by the Department to administer the grant. Grant funds will be used for projects that benefit and enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops industry as a whole, and cannot be for projects that directly benefit a particular product or provide a profit to a single organization, institution, or individual.

Bloomberg News is reporting that President Trump has directed the E-P-A to table proposals that would weaken the Renewable Fuels Standard. Governor Kim Reynolds spoke by phone with President Trump Wednesday morning and a few hours later she told reporters in Pella that she intends to keep lobbying on the issue. “It’s not done until it’s done and if you ever think that it is, you’re mistaken,” Reynolds said, “so you don’t stop until you get the final numbers.”

Reynolds spoke at a news conference in Pella. She was joined by leaders in the renewable fuels industry. Grant Kimberley, executive director of the Iowa Biodiesel Board, says it was “discouraging” to see a federal agency “regressing” on Trump’s 2016 campaign pledge to “protect” the Renewable Fuels Standard. “So I urge President Trump and Administrator Pruitt in the EPA not to buckle in the interests of certain oil companies and refiners, but rather stay true on promises made on the campaign trail,” Kimberley said. “…This is about ‘America First’. This is about American jobs, American energy, national security and, certainly, it’s about rural America and the American heartland.”

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association executive director Monte Shaw says E-P-A’s initial proposals weren’t “good news” and it was important that President Trump get that message. “Quite frankly, it looked like the EPA was looking for just about any and every excuse it could find to lower the numbers for both corn ethanol, biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol,” Shaw said. “It kind of felt like the EPA was saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to put up a giant sign across rural America that says: “Closed for business.”‘ And people got upset. People were disappointed and, to a certain extent, people even felt betrayed.”

On another front, Republican Joni Ernst has used her authority as a U.S. Senator to block a confirmation vote on the man Trump has nominated to run the renewable fuels program inside the E-P-A.  “Able to hold their feet to the fire on a pathway to receive those strong reassurances on these biofuel volumes and the EPA’s commitment to follow both the letter and the spirit of the RFS,” Ernst told Radio Iowa yesterday afternoon.

Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s other Republican Senator, hosted a meeting in his office earlier this week for a group of Midwestern senators who spoke face-to-face with Pruit about these concerns.

(Radio Iowa)