Bill Northey visits Washington

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey visited Washington Friday afternoon for a public forum at the Farm Bureau Office. Northey talked about the state of agriculture in Iowa and around the world, and he fielded questions from the audience.

Northey spoke about an agricultural delegation from Ireland that recently visited the United States. Ireland?s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, has been in the US since late June in an effort to promote beef and sheep exports. Northey said it was interesting to learn about the similarities and differences between Ireland and Iowa?s economy. Ireland has a population slightly larger than Iowa?s at 4.5 million but it has significantly less pork production.

Northey said it is hard to overstate Iowa?s grain and livestock production. He said Iowa produces more than double the amount of corn of similar Midwestern states such as Indiana. He said that, despite the summer heat, 70 percent of Iowa?s corn is rated ?good to excellent.?

One of the items that dominated discussion Friday was federal crop insurance. Iowa received $500 million in crop insurance payments last year. Northey said that, as large as that number sounds, the state was actually a net exporter of crop insurance payments. He said that is less per acre than what southern states receive from the federal government. He mentioned that Texas is a net recipient of federal crop insurance payments.

Northey was part of a USDA trade delegation that went to China in late March. Northey said Iowa exports more than $7 billion in agricultural products, and that its exports to China alone grew by 1300 percent from 2000 to 2010. He said Iowa leads the nation in soybean production with 466 million bushels in 2011, which is 15 percent of the nation?s total. One quarter of all soybeans grown in the U.S. are exported to China. He said the Chinese have also adopted pork production techniques from America as the demand for animal protein has grown substantially.