Rob Sand and Dave Muhlbauer Bring Agriculture Leaders Together to Discuss “Opportunities for All” Plan

Rob Sand: “Farmers are part of the solution… The problem is politicians.”

DES MOINES, IA – Yesterday, nominee for governor Rob Sand and nominee for lieutenant governor Dave Muhlbauer brought together agriculture leaders from across Iowa for a roundtable discussion on their “Opportunities for All” plan and how to strengthen Iowa’s agriculture economy, support family farms, and ensure the next generation of farmers can succeed. Former Iowa Governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack praised Sand’s “innovative” approach, which focuses on making farms — not farmers — work harder, while Polk County century farmer LaVon Griffieon called the plan a “breath of fresh air.”

Learn more about Rob and Dave’s agriculture roundtable below:

WATCH:

WHO13: Rob Sand Announces New Farm Policy

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Vilsack endorses Sand and his farm policy proposals

Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand spoke with farmers and former Iowa governor and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack Wednesday about his plans to support Iowa’s rural and agricultural economies.
Vilsack said he was “excited” by Sand’s “innovative” approach that aims to make farms, rather than farmers, work harder.
“It’s very direct, and I think it speaks significantly and centrally to the challenges that many Iowa farmers face today,” Vilsack said of the policy proposal. “And I think, frankly, it will have a profound impact on not just the farm community but on rural communities generally.”
Sand’s “Opportunities for All” policy includes a plan to invest in programs that will diversify the family farm with things like manure digesters that process manure into renewable natural gas and an easily transportable, rather than liquid, fertilizer. Vilsack has been a proponent of this technology, which can add an additional, on-farm revenue stream.
“Farmers are part of the solution, Sand said. “They sign up for these conservation programs, they get put on a wait list. The problem is politicians.”

The Gazette: Rob Sand on ag policy: Iowa farmers ‘part of the solution’

Farmers are part of the solution to questions about conservation and water quality policy, Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for Iowa governor, said Wednesday.
Sand’s campaign hosted a roundtable discussion on ag policy Wednesday at a farm near this Des Moines suburb. Sand was joined by Iowa farmers, his running mate Dave Muhlbauer — a farmer — and Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and former U.S. secretary of agriculture.
“My approach on this is always really simple: farmers are part of the solution,” Sand said during the roundtable discussion. “They sign up for these conservation programs. They get put on a wait list. The problem is politicians. They don’t want to support the programs at the levels that farmers want to participate.
“And then when somebody complains about water quality, they (politicians) say you’re attacking farmers. No, we’re attacking you, politicians. This is your responsibility to fix this. And they just want to sit there and pit people against each other. And I think people have had enough of that.”
Vilsack said Sand’s policy proposals are “predicated on a very simple proposition, which is it’s not the farmer that should have to work harder” and lay out “an idea of the farm itself working harder, creating multiple ways in which that farm can generate many sources of income from what farmers are currently doing or could do.”