A plainspoken Iowa farmer said his industry needs better infrastructure and marketing opportunities.
He makes it clear that farmers can grow products desired by world markets, but they have to be given the means to compete in the 21st century, in both shipping and marketing.
Mark Recker is a farmer from Arlington, Iowa. Recker is the Vice President of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. I spoke with Recker at Lock and Dam Number 10 in Guttenberg last week.
?We need to fix these locks and dams. We need to modernize them for the 21st century because we?re continuing to grow larger crops, bringing more products upstream that we use. They need to be modernized, extended to meet world-class standards. We?re in a world competition with Brazil and Ukraine, and we need to have the facilities that help us compete with them. That means new structures that will lower our costs, so we can compete in the world market.
It?s an extremely large cost. But, the longer you put it off, the more expensive it gets. That?s why it?s necessary that we start now, get the money in place now for long-term build out on these locks and dams.?
The Iowa Corn Growers Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The organization has risen in prominence in recent decades, dealing with many issues such as development of ethanol production and promotion of renewable fuels through the Iowa Corn promotion funding.
