Iowa farmers speak out about the importance of legislative action to protect their tools
Iowa farmers face rising threats to their livelihoods.
Across Iowa, farmers are experiencing rising costs and shrinking margins. They share concerns on the growing role of policy in day-to-day decisions on the farm. And about the risks to the crop protection tools they rely on to keep their operations viable in the face of mounting pressure.
From Heath Stolee, a fourth-generation farmer in Radcliffe; Richard Roorda, who raises crops and cattle in Prairie City; or April Hemmes, who has spent more than four decades farming in north-central Iowa—their challenges sound strikingly similar.
As Heath explains, staying afloat is becoming harder to manage with each season:
The rising inputs of seed costs, and fertilizer costs, and chemical costs have continued to go up with inflation. The value of the grain is not rising along with it.
For farmers like Richard, those pressures are compounded by the realities of agriculture as a business.
Farming, unfortunately, is kind of a volume business and a margin business, and with lower crop prices, the margins get tighter and you can’t always change that volume … Without the crop protection chemical arsenal that we have right now, it would be so much more challenging.
The challenges they are facing leaves farmers looking for ways to manage risk and protect what they’ve invested in their crops. And increasingly, farmers are affected by policies made far away in Washington and state capitols.
As Richard says:
What seems like small policy changes can have a huge effect on what we do out here … I would ask legislators to do what they can to protect Iowa farmers. We play a vital role in feeding the country, and in the security of the country. And decisions that lawmakers make [do] have a big impact on the way we operate our farms, and in the future of the country.
Pesticides are essential to Iowa farmers.
At the center of many policy conversations today are crop protection tools. For farmers, these tools are foundational to productivity and are critical to staying in business.
Heath puts it plainly:
Crop protection tools are a vital part of the farm. We need every valuable tool to protect that crop and make a better crop, so that we can become profitable.
But the importance of pesticides isn’t only economic; it’s also environmental.
For April, the evolution of farming practices over the past 40 years tells that story clearly. Early in her career, weed control often meant intensive tillage, which came at a cost to soil health and long-term sustainability.
Today, modern tools have enabled a different approach.
Back then, what we did for weed control was bury the weeds. We tilled, and that caused soil erosion. Now, I have the seed technology and the chemical companions to go with them. I can lose less soil, protecting my soil health, and the water quality – because I am not tilling the ground so much, and I’m using less fuel.
Those kinds of advances have allowed farmers to adopt conservation practices like reduced tillage—helping protect soil, conserve water, and lower emissions while maintaining productivity.
Iowa farmers need support from policymakers.
Farmers are asking to be heard and for policies grounded in the realities they face every day.
Heath, who now farms alongside his daughter, sees the need for more support from policymakers clearly:
To those that are trying to dictate what we need—come take a visit, see what we do, so that we can help you better understand why it is that we need these tools and how we use them.
The future of agriculture and the affordability and security of the food supply depends on whether farmers can continue to do their jobs effectively.
That means having access to the tools they rely on. It means reducing unnecessary uncertainty. And it means recognizing that decisions made in policy debates play out in fields across the country.
The farmers of Iowa are speaking with a shared voice. Lawmakers should listen and act because protecting farmers’ access to essential tools is critical to protecting America’s food supply.