Iowa’s farmers received corn subsidies in excess of $19 billion from 1995 to 2020. Much of this money rewarded farmers for unsound agricultural practices such as raising corn in the same ground year after year, plowing up waterways and leaving the ground uncovered. These practices are literally causing farmers to send Iowa’s most valuable natural resource downriver, and they are not sustainable. Farmers know this, and so does Chuck Grassley. Therefore, I was deeply disappointed to read Grassley’s editorial criticizing Biden’s failure to support corn-based ethanol as part of his plan for helping our country move into the future in an environmentally and economically sound manner.

As those who have studied ancient histories can tell you, and those that live among the government-farmer created deserts of western Texas can show you, poor agricultural policy has consequences that bring down entire civilizations and affect many generations. President Biden’s administration has been given a chance by our nation’s voters to craft agricultural policy that rewards farmers for good stewardship while maintaining economic viability — supporting the planting of perennial crops that may take more than one year to produce, rotating more than two crops, the planting of more than one crop in a field at a time, the use of cover crops…

These are not going to be quick and easy solutions to implement, and farmers will need taxpayer support if they are going to make them work. Reducing our farmers’ over dependence on corn and soybean subsidies while promoting sound agricultural practice is essential to our nation’s survival. If we are to remain vital and strong into the next century, the time for change is early in this century. The time for change is now. Tell Senator Grassley that you support agricultural change.