Sec. of Ag candidate visits Union Co. Fair

Come November of this year, Iowa residents will be given the opportunity to vote for, among other things, their next Secretary of Agriculture. This election follows the resignation of Bill Northey, who left office to serve as Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service at the USDA.

The primary elections in June resulted in Mike Naig, the incumbent and Northey’s former deputy, going forward as the Republican party’s candidate, and Tim Gannon for the Democrats.

Gannon visited the Union County Fair in Afton Tuesday.

Gannon’s entire platform can be condensed into these two sentences he said in an interview Tuesday: “I think that rural Iowa’s a really special place, having grown up in a small town and having seen the community spirit that exists in those small towns and in rural counties. And everything begins, I think, with a strong ag economy.”

Gannon was born and raised in Jasper County, and has lived in Iowa his whole life — with the exception of the eight years that he worked in Washington, D.C., under United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack during the Obama administration. During those years, Gannon became familiar with the vast number of areas that USDA works in.

Though his time in D.C. certainly reinforced the idea that a society’s agriculture affects its whole economy, Gannon first saw evidence of that growing up around his father’s business, running a John Deere store in Colfax.

“So very early on in life I understood that when the ag economy wasn’t good, it wasn’t just bad for farmers, it was bad for all those businesses that have that interconnection with farmers; farmers depend on them and they depend on farmers,” said Gannon.

Gannon explained that he also came to realize that if farmers weren’t able to buy things like tractors, that affected not only businesses selling that equipment, but also the manufacturing workers that build those products. When that “triple whammy,” as Gannon calls it, hits small towns, populations go down with the number of available jobs. This is a major concern of Gannon’s.

“I don’t want to see Iowa become a place where we’ve got a lot of economic opportunity in our urban areas, but rural Iowa, small towns, struggle to keep up. And we’ve seen population loss in rural Iowa,” said Gannon. “We have, even before the concerns with trade and the price loss, price declines we’ve seen due to tariffs that have happened in the last couple months — even before that, we had seen farm income fall over the last couple of years, and it was predicted to fall this year. … I really think we need to do all that we can to make farming profitable.”

Having experienced the importance of a thriving agricultural economy early in his life first-hand, and later on a global scale through his work at USDA, Gannon has made the profitability of Iowa agriculture a priority in his campaign. In the immediate future, he believes that immigration reform and reversing “some bad policies” regarding biofuel, but long-term, Gannon is more focused on keeping and creating jobs in Iowa. This is an area Gannon has experience in, from his time working for USDA on rural development planning and job creation, before moving to Secretary Vilsack’s office.

One way he hopes to create more jobs for Iowans is through finding new purposes for corn and soybeans. Gannon explained that implementing the 3/8 cent sales tax, which was approved in 2010, to put money into the Water and Land Legacy Trust Fund could easily fund research at Iowa State University to explore new practices and crop rotations, as well as new uses for corn and soybeans, which could create an industry in and of itself.

“If we can process and refine those things (corn and soybeans) here, in Iowa, we’re adding value to what we grow and raise, but we’re also creating jobs,” explained Gannon.

Gannon also said he hopes that, by finding a new use for these crops and creating these jobs, young people interested in agriculture will stay local to pursue these opportunities.

Another focus of research Gannon would like to pursue is how to sustain, if not improve Iowa’s topsoil and surface water.

He explained that Iowa State researchers believe that Iowa’s topsoil will be completely eroded in the next 40 to 50 years, and that this could end Iowa’s status as a world leader in agriculture.

“I think that we have the opportunity as a state to really, over the next generation, make a difference when it comes to our soil and water,” said Gannon. “It’s important to remember that it’s the department of agriculture and land stewardship.”

As for major differences between himself and his opponent, Gannon emphasized that he is willing to “call out” the current administration when its policies are harming Iowa’s farmers, and he is for passing and implementing the Water and Land Legacy Trust Fund.

More information about Gannon's plans for Iowa upon taking office, his personal background and social media links can be found at gannonforiowa.com.