Water quality and property rights among the important issues
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
The Iowa Farm Bureau recently held its Summer Policy Conference where it outlined some of the issues it would focus on in 2017.
The issues the Bureau will continue to advocate for include soil conservation, water quality, animal disease management and taxpayer protection for landowners.
When it comes to soil conservation and water quality, the Bureau understands those issues reach far beyond the field.
Delegates passed a resolution that supports finding or exploring new state tax revenue to fund water quality or soil conservation initiatives.
“It is really important that we lead on this issue and bring all Iowans with us,” Fayette County voting delegate Chad Ingels said in a release.
But Craig Hill, Farm Bureau president, said participation should be on a voluntary basis to accommodate the different farm landscapes in the state.
“Every farm is unique, every farm is diverse (and) every farm is different in its slope or its topography or its drainage,” Hill told WNAX. “We need to develop plans that are uniquely qualified for that farm, and you don’t do that through regulation. You do it through voluntary, incentive-based action.”