WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - February 28, 2012 - Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) members are pleased to see Iowa lawmakers show support for Iowa's family farmers and securing our food supply by passing the Agricultural Production Facility Fraud bill.  The bipartisan Senate version of House File 589 would make it a crime for individuals to fraudulently gain access to a farm with the intent to cause harm.

"It's about misrepresentation of character," said IFBF President and Milo livestock farmer Craig Hill. "In a post 9/11 world, transparency is important for farmers and consumers alike. Responsible farmers take good care of their land and livestock and want to employ honest, hardworking people that have the welfare of their livestock as their top priority," said Hill.

The revised HF 589 creates new penalties for those who make false statements to gain access to a farm, or misrepresent themselves on an employment application to hide their intended misconduct or purpose.  The person who commits an offense would be charged with a serious misdemeanor on the first conviction and an aggravated misdemeanor on the second. It also penalizes organizations or persons who aid or abet someone who misrepresented facts to gain access to a crop or livestock farm.

"In order to raise and grow the healthiest animals and crops possible for the safest food possible, we need to be assured that hired workers and others entering our farms act ethically and responsibly," Hill said. "With that transparency comes trust that everyone working with our livestock also believes in the compassionate care of our animals; responsible Iowa livestock farmers don't tolerate bad actors who turn a blind eye on generations of established veterinary animal care standards; in fact, we think they should be removed immediately from animal care, if they really have the animal's best interests in mind," said Hill.

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About Iowa Farm Bureau

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is a grassroots, statewide organization dedicated to enhancing the People, Progress and Pride of Iowa.  More than 153,000 families in Iowa are Farm Bureau members, working together to achieve farm and rural prosperity.  For more information about Farm Bureau and agriculture, visit the online Newsroom page at www.iowafarmbureau.com.

It's perfectly understandable why so many folks care how farmers care for the land; it doesn't just need to be protected because it feeds us, but because our fertile soils and watersheds always have and always will be Iowa's most valuable asset.

But there's a growing concern that some well-intentioned folks have taken efforts to be sustainable to a whole new level, calling for the sacrifice of property rights, food production and jobs for the sake of 'speciesism' (choosing plants or animals over people).  'Speciesism' seems to be 'de riguer' these days in Hollywood and national media, so that's probably why the subject packed the house this week at the 2012 American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting.

Rob Gordon, senior advisor for strategic outreach for the Heritage Foundation (http://www.heritage.org/about), says being environmentally-sustainable is important, but too often regulations are put in place which go beyond common sense. "Science has to be 'good science' which means it must follow scientific method. That means if you conduct an experiment and write down how you do it, I should be able to replicate your results.  Right now species are added to endangered lists based on 'best available data,' which doesn't mean rational, duplicated, sane or even scientific."

Gordon then went on to illustrate that point by way of the Pleistocene Snail.

The Pleistocene snail (http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/Snails/iops_fct.html) is a tiny snail that lives on rocky outcropping areas in Iowa and was declared 'endangered' in 1978.  So, the government took over land and created the National Wildlife Refuge near Dubuque to protect the snails.  But, there were snags in maintaining the tiny creature's population because, according to Gordon, the biggest threats remained: the lack of an Ice Age and humans.  It seems well-intentioned environmentalists who went out to 'count' these tiny snails were killing them by accidentally stepping on them.   Since these tiny snails thrived in glacial conditions, the government deemed that the next best 'savior' for the Pleistocene is to keep the National Wildlife Refuge near Dubuque in place, and wait for the next Ice Age.

"Clearly, this is a case of speciesism and regulation run amok.  We have to remember that environmental policy can't be good environmental policy if it doesn't take people into account," says Gordon.

In an age when snails are deemed more important than farming, feeding people or employing them, something is wrong.  That's why folks like Gordon are out there reading the fine print, calling for people to ask questions and demand conservation efforts be based on repeatable, scientific results that take human beings into account.  Waiting for the government to realize this however, could take...until the next Ice Age.

Laurie Johns is Public Relations Manager for the Iowa Farm Bureau.                        1/11/2012

Oct. 15 UI ANF Game Day Features First-Ever 'Card Stunt' and Former Hawkeye/NFL Players

WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - October 10, 2011 - Iowa is insulated against the worst of the nation's economic woes, thanks to the strength and influence of agriculture, according to a recent survey by Creighton University economists.  "Farming has contributed 5,000 manufacturing jobs in this state over the past year and that's just one more reason why we want to share the good news of today's agriculture," says Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) President Craig Lang.

As part of the ANF partnership announced in August between the Iowa Farm Bureau and the University of Iowa Athletics Department, the football game this Saturday (Oct. 15) at historic Kinnick Stadium between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Northwestern Wildcats has been designated "ANF Day at Kinnick." The game, to be televised live on the Big Ten Network (BTN) at 6 p.m. CT, will feature a host of activities celebrating why America Needs Farmers, including a pre-game autograph session with former Hawkeye stars Jared DeVries, Tim Dwight, Marv Cook, Ed Podolak and Gary Dolphin at the Legend's Tent in the Krause Family Plaza located immediately south of the stadium.

Other activities include Tailgate Toss with ANF prizes and the UI's first stadium 'card stunt', where all fans in the four grandstands of Kinnick Stadium will, on cue, hold them up and deliver two designs and messages for the enjoyment of the 70,000 people in the stadium and the national television audience watching on BTN.

ANF was first launched in 1985 during the height of the Farm Crisis by legendary Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry, who wanted to show an increasingly urban nation why agriculture matters.  "Farming has seen many innovations since then, which bring more food and energy choices and job opportunities to a new generation," says Lang, a fifth-generation Brooklyn, Iowa dairy farmer. "Today's farming isn't just about feeding people; it's about innovation in renewable energy, medicine, building materials, diagnostic tools, and more which combine what we know with what we grow."

Iowa farmers lead the nation in what they grow.  Just this week, the world celebrates the efficiency and sustainability of today's farmers through the 25^th anniversary of the World Food Prize honoring another Iowa farmer, Norman Borlaug. "In less than a generation, the world's population will need 100 percent more food than we are growing today on a finite amount of productive land.  IFBF is always looking for ways to show consumers how we plan to do that, while maintaining the integrity of the land, water, and rural communities where our farmers raise their own children," said Lang.

Iowa farmers realize with an increasing number of consumers curious about innovations in farming and food production, they need to find ways to make farming more transparent.  Larry Sailer, a Hardin County Farm Bureau member who farms near Iowa Falls, says, "Anything you can do to start a conversation with consumers about food and agriculture is good. We want to know what questions they have about what we do and why we do it. And in a high profile event, like an Iowa Hawkeye football game, it's literally a new way to show them this whole new playing field of modern agriculture."

For more information about the Iowa Farm Bureau/U of I ANF partnership and additional ANF Game Day activities or merchandise, click on www.americaneedsfarmers.org.

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I saw the movie, "Contagion," this weekend with my daughter.  I have to say, it's a good flick, good actors, fast-paced and slickly shot.  Without realizing it, the film makers may have inadvertently endorsed America's modern hog farms.  For one thing, raising hogs indoors protects them from disease-carrying wildlife, the very kind that caused the cross-species viral contamination featured in the movie.

(Spoiler alert!)

In "Contagion", Gwyneth Paltrow ('Patient Zero') inadvertently acquires a deadly (spreads by touch) viral infection in Hong Kong by shaking the unwashed hands of a chef  (note to all movie-goers: always wash hands before eating).  She didn't realize this chef had just prepared a dish from a hog that was exposed to a sick bat.  This pig was apparently raised in an open-air pen, where a sick bat flew overhead, then dropped a piece of fruit it just grabbed from a banana tree.  Pigs, true to nature, eat anything.  And so the story goes...

But, what I find interesting is that the Humane Society of United States' Wayne Pacelle is claiming "Contagion" actually makes a case for raising animals in the very conditions that put them at risk for contracting contagions from other species ( http://hsus.typepad.com/).  I'm wondering if he saw the same movie.

I grew up on a Century farm in Iowa and have many fond memories.  But, after seeing "Contagion," I think Hollywood's screenwriters could use a little 'chore time' on an actual, working farm to gain some perspective.

I saw birds, wild cats, stray dogs, raccoons and mice scrambling through our hog feedlot and roaming in the moonlight across our cattle pastures.  I remember the year wild dogs got our rooster (so much for my dad's egg-laying chicken farm idea), the year rabid skunks got into the hog lot (28 shots in the stomach for us, but the hogs were vaccinated, of course), and the daily roaming of a horde of much-loved, but unvaccinated feral cats.

Things were different back then.  Today, it's not just rabies vaccinations (three shots!)  that have improved, so has hog farming (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid64340018001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAACMzGNIE~,z fiweksx8NKGXiTGxVmXug1yWfMOUJx&bclid=69776058001&bctid=918490352001).  Farmers who choose to raise their hogs in modern livestock barns say doing so protects them from exposure to wildlife, harsh weather and viruses that can be carried by any stranger who happens to wander onto the farm.

It's a choice.  Responsible farmers across Iowa work hard to give them to you.  There are many options for raising animals, both indoors and out.  But clearly, progress in American agriculture (versus overseas?) keeps our animals safer, our food safer and our families safer from the kind of Hollywood hysteria portrayed in "Contagion," and the kind of 'one size fits all' food production model Pacelle and the HSUS hype machine condones.

--- Laurie Johns