FACT CHECK: Agriculture

Farmers make the best Senators!

  • There is only one farmer in this race and that’s Senator Chuck Grassley.
  • The Iowa Farm Bureau, the Iowa Corn Growers Association, and leaders from Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and more have endorsed Senator Grassley’s re-election.
  • Senator Grassley works to open export markets for Iowa agriculture, cut tariffs on imports of fertilizer products, fight for Iowa’s independent cattlemen, secure federal assistance for producers impacted by the derecho, flooding and other natural disasters and defend crop insurance for Iowa farmers.
  • As one of only two crop farmers in the U.S. Senate, Senator Grassley is an outspoken leader for American Agriculture and works tirelessly to educate everyone else where their food comes from. The Biden administration blames farmers for climate change rather than thanking them for feeding and fueling the world.
  • Senator Grassley is leading two different bills to address China ownership of federal land and authored the first law to track these purchases. No one is a bigger defender of Iowa’s farm families than Chuck Grassley.
  • Iowans are proud that our food and fuel go toward feeding our country and the world. We should not be putting any more ground into “carbon sequestration” or “land-renewal.”
  • Senator Grassley also continues his crusade for Iowa’s renewable energy industry which is critical to Iowa agriculture and economic vitality in communities across our state.

Mike Franken wants to turn back the clock on Iowa’s agriculture industry. 

  • Mike Franken wants to turn back the clock on ag policy and tell Iowa farmers what, when, how and where to farm. Our productivity is our advantage—limits on planting will hobble us. Franken doesn’t think ethanol is a viable fuel in the future because he wants to push Americans to drive only electric vehicles. 
  • Grassley’s Democrat opponent, Mike Franken:
    • Supports the goals of the Green New Deal, which would add costly regulations to farm operations across Iowa,
    • Supports bringing back the Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, which would regulate 97 percent of land in Iowa.
    • Supports President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better progressive agenda, which would expand the federal estate tax and sought to eliminate step-up in basis, adding a double death tax to farms and businesses,
    • Reversed his position about making E-15 sales permanent, after first saying he does not support it.
    • Said we need a “different equation for agriculture in the state of Iowa,”
    • Said, “it’s too bad that [the hog] industry has made capitalism such that so much of this crucial food supply is exported,” and
    • Referred to hardworking Iowa farmers as “stooges.”

Franken embraces policies that would devastate Iowa’s ag industry for one simple reason: He cares more about his radical environmental donors on the coasts – who are bankrolling his campaign – over boots-on-the-ground farmers and businesses in Iowa.

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