Index to University Clippings
Iowa State University
January 2, 2006 through January 13, 2006
University News
Dubuque Telegraph Herald – 1/8 - Many Happy Returns - Teresa Tsushima –
Faculty/Research
Dubuque Telegraph Herald – 1/8 - Ruling Gives Big Packer Boys Yet Another
Key Legal Victory - Roger McEowen – Faculty/Research
Omaha World-Herald – 1/7 - Beef Export Session Planned – General
Iowa City Press-Citizen – 1/6 - Mary Swander's Work Presented Sunday - Mary
Swander – Faculty/Research
AgWeb.com – 1/5 - Economist: Pork Demand The Big Unknown - John
Lawrencesays – Faculty/Research
Associated Press State & Local Wire – 1/5 - New TV Show Focuses On "Living
The Country Life" - Paul Lasley – Faculty/Research
National Hog Farmer Online Exclusive – 1/5 - Sow Herd Training - Locke
Karriker – Faculty/Research
National Hog Farmer Online Exclusive – 1/5 - NSIF Honors Two Iowa Stater's Max Rothschild – Faculty/Research
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette – 1/2 - Experts See The Decline Of Rural U.S.
Quickening Federal Farm, Development Programs At Risk - Paul LasleyFaculty/Research
Begin In-House Media Review, 01-13-06
Ag Web – 1/5 - Economist: Pork Demand the Big Unknown – John Lawrence –
Faculty/research
Agri News, IL – 1/11 - Western bean cutworm now migrating east - General
Agri News, MN – 1/10 - Lawmakers consider tax incentives for beginning farmers
- General
Associated Press – 12/31 - ‘Water for Iowans’ coalition formed – Retired Stanley Johnson - John Miranowski – Faculty/research – Also ran in: Iowa
Farmer Today
Associated Press – 1/3 - Snowmobilers push for higher fines - General
Bismarck Farm & Ranch Guide – 1/5 - Elevators will be among first inspected
when FDA starts enforcing bioterror law – Charles Hurburgh – Faculty/research
Crookston Daily Times, MN – 1/9 - Annie's Project aims to boost farm women's –
Bob Wells, Extension
Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, IA – 1/4 – Drought likely to follow mild winter –
Elwynn Taylor – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 1/5 - Yepsen: One legislator making a drive at raising
pickup fees - General
Des Moines Register – 1/5 – Editorial – Encourage snowmobiling - General
Des Moines Register – 1/6 - Wrestler pins hopes on trip to Japan – Neal Isaak Student
Des Moines Register – 1/6 - ISU senior to deliver speech honoring King –
Cameron Creighton - Student
Des Moines Register – 1/6 - Many upward swings in Des Moines area – David
Swenson – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 1/6 - Areas picked for MyEntreNet - General
Des Moines Register – 1/8 – Money Management – ISU offers finance course for
women- Cynthia Fletcher – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 1/8 – For more Iowans, it pays to give - General
Des Moines Register – 1/8 – Iowa top 10 - General
Des Moines Register – 1-9 - Sagario: Turn a deaf ear to those auditory assaults
– Paul Lasley – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 1-9 - University online donations soar - Foundation
Des Moines Register – 1/10 – Letters to the Editor - Athletics
Des Moines Register – 1/11 – Carillonneur to perform tribute concert – Tin-Shi
Tam – Faculty/research
Des Moines Register – 1/11 - Proposal to increase beer taxes upsets distributors,
restaurants - Ajani Thomas - Student
Des Moines Register – 1/11 - Woodbury supervisors approve organic ordinance
– Rich Pirog - Administration
Farm News – 12/23 - Poll finds farmers pleased with current farm policy – Paul
Lasley – Faculty/research
Farm News – 12/23 - Wintersteen named named ISU ag dean – President
Gregory Geoffroy – Wendy Wintersteen – Administration – Also ran in: Iowa
Farmer Today
Farm News – 12/23 – Locally-grown foods remain in demand – Steve Adams Extension
Farm News – 1/5 - Conference addresses grain handling, bioterrorism - General
Farm News – 1/6 - Cutworm makes its presence known in Corn Belt – Joel
DeJong - Extension
Iowa Farmer Today – 12/24 – FYI – ISU water-quality projects funded - General
Iowa Farmer Today – 12.24 - Web links specialty goods, market - General
Iowa Farmer Today – 12/24 - Iowa’s past reveals rich food history – Rich Pirog Administration
Iowa Farmer Today – 12/24 – Good yields have room to improve – Jim Rouse –
Faculty/research
Iowa Farmer Today – 12/31 - ISU ag school ‘player’ in development: Wintersteen
– Windy Wintersteen - Administration
Iowa Farmer Today – 12/31 - 2005 soybean crop quality: Oil up, protein down General
Iowa Farmer Today – 12/31 - WTO ag proposal includes radical subsidy changes
- General
KCCI.com, IA – 1/4 - Grad Student to attend Pro Wrestling Camp – Neal Isaak Student
Lincoln Journal Star, NE – 1/7 - Fun facts for a not-so fun 2006 – Roger
McEowen – Faculty/research
MIT Technology Review, MA – 1/5 – Plant Power – Robert Anex –
Faculty/research
Phhilly.com – 1/9 – A fresh idea for USDA – General – Also ran in: FreshPlaza,
Netherlands
Pork Net – 1/9 – Ag Briefs - General
Quad City Times, IA – 1/8 - Lobbying scandal fallout felt in area - Steffen Schmidt
– Faculty/research
Radio Iowa – 1/9 - Students send old textbooks overseas – Craig Buske Student
Sioux Falls Argus Leader, SD - 1/11 - Pop. 144,600 - and booming – Tim Borich
– Faculty/research
The Dickinson Press, ND – 1/1 – Pursuing a Dakota Dream – Neal Isaak –
Student
The Hindu, Hindu, India -1/10 - Farmers should be made aware of benefits of BT:
Minister – Wendy Wintersteen - Administration
Times Online, UK – 1/8 - Gory games that can warp your brain – Craig Anderson
– Faculty/research - Also ran in: Earthtimes.org
Wisconsin Ag Connections – 1/11 - National Ag Electric Seminar to be Held in
Wisconsin - General
Dubuque Telegraph
Herald
Go to top……….
January 8, 2006 Sunday
Tristate; Pg. a1
Many Happy Returns
'Boomerang kids' find that there's no place like their parents' home
EMILY KLEIN
With the ever-increasing
cost of higher education
and an unreliable job
market, many 20somethings are turning to
the one place they know
will never turn them away home.
Children who leave home
to enter college, the work
force, military or just to find
independence and then
return home often are
called "boomerang kids."
In 2002, 55 percent of men
and 46 percent of women
ages 18 to 24 lived at
home with at least one
parent, according to the
U.S. Census Bureau.
Bev and Steve Kraus, of
Dubuque, welcomed their
20-year-old daughter
Lindsay back home in
October to help her save
money and plan her
wedding.
Lindsay was living alone in
a Dubuque apartment,
following a year at
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Kirkwood Community
College, when her
boyfriend proposed. Bev
and Steve encouraged
Lindsay to move back
home so she wouldn't have
to pay rent.
"It was more of a
suggestion on our part,"
Bev said. "She didn't know
if she wanted to come
home to the rules."
But after explaining that
she was an adult and
would be treated as one
while in their home,
Lindsay decided that
moving back in with her
parents would be an ideal
way to save money, plan
her May wedding and learn
to cook.
Lindsay does her own
laundry and generally
takes care of her
belongings in the house,
Bev said. Occasionally she
asks her parents to care for
her dog while she's away,
but the family has grown
attached to the pet and
Bev said she will miss the
www.clipresearch.com
dog when it leaves with
Lindsay.
If a child helps with chores
or even tempers his or her
behaviors to accommodate
the family's lifestyle, it can
decrease stress in a
boomerang household,
said Teresa Tsushima,
assistant professor of
Sociology at Iowa State
University.
Because the parent-child
relationship has become
more friendship-based than
it had been historically,
Tsushima said parents
might be more willing to
welcome adult children
home.
"Parents who are empathic
and able to demonstrate
warmth are more likely to
have closer relationships
with their children, and
their children may then feel
in turn that they can return
home," Tshushima said.
Bev said she and Lindsay
have always had a strong
relationship, so having her
home while planning the
Electronic Clipping
details of the wedding has
been a positive experience
for them both.
resources to accommodate
another adult living in the
home.
parents might not always
expect them to turn around
and come home," she said.
Tsushima said several
factors contribute to the
boomerang trend.
Research on the
phenomena is limited and
Tsushima said it is likely
that researchers have not
examined the trend more
closely because it is not
perceived as a social
problem. But that does not
mean that kids who
boomerang come without
conflict.
But if a child graduates
with stacks of college
loans, parents are more
likely to be understanding
of the situation and see it
as a transition period for
the child.
"This generation that's
graduating from college
isn't facing as good of an
economic market as their
parents were at that age,"
she said.
Today's college graduates
are facing a labor market
that often does not pay
enough for them to uphold
the lifestyles their parents
have provided, Tsushima
said. Baby Boomers have
typically been more
indulgent than their
parents, but by living a
more lavish lifestyle, their
children have grown
accustomed to it as well.
Generally, she said, it's
easier for upper and
middle-class families to
handle a boomerang
because they have the
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When Lindsay marries,
Bev expects to get used to
an empty house again
quickly.
Several factors can
indicate whether an adult
who moves back in with
their family will cause
tension and turmoil.
"It's different because we
had an empty nest for two
years," she said. "You get
used to your own ways."
If the child's return is a
surprise, it will likely cause
some stress on the family.
Parents who have no idea
that their adult child might
be planning to come home
have a more difficult time
accepting it when it
happens, Tsushima said.
GRAPHIC: Liz Noon, (left)
27, helps her mom, Joan
Noon, get ready for a
gathering at their Dubuque
home. Liz returned to live
with her parents after
graduating from college
and working a couple of
years.
"If parents have fully paid
for a child to go to college,
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Electronic Clipping
Dubuque Telegraph
Herald
Go to top
January 8, 2006 Sunday
Agriculture; Pg. b7
Ruling gives Big Packer Boys yet another key legal victory
A court finds anti-corporate law in Nebraska unconstitutional
ALAN GUEBERT
Under the pile of wrapping
paper left from the holidays
and newspapers left from
2005 lurks some not-so fun
2006 items for the nation,
farmers and ranchers.
* Item One: On Dec. 15,
the Federal District Court
for the District of Nebraska
ruled the nation's toughest
anti-corporate farming law,
Nebraska's Initiative 300,
unconstitutional because it
violated the "dormant
commerce clause" of the
U.S. Constitution and the
Americans with Disabilities
Act.
The ruling, which will be
appealed by the state, now
leaves just nine states with
varying levels of anticorporate farming laws.
It also cracks the door for
the Big Packer Boys to
declare open season on
independent livestock
producers in the
Cornhusker State, the
nation's largest red meat
producer (despite 20-year-
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
old claims that I-300 would
kill beef and pork
production there), and one
of the last bastions of cash
cattle and hog markets.
More darkly, however, the
ruling gives agbiz three
legal wins in a row over
state anti-corporate
farming laws - South
Dakota, Iowa and now
Nebraska.
All pivoted on one, crucial
hinge: smart lawyering that
led a more business-pliant
federal judiciary to an ever
looser interpretation of the
federal dormant commerce
clause that forbids states
from enacting
"discriminatory" laws to
impede interstate business.
That pliancy is now
hardening into case law,
notes Roger McEowen,
an associate professor of
ag law at Iowa State
University, in an
Agricultural Law Digest
article co-authored with
ISU colleague Neil Harl,
because none of the three
courts examined "the
www.clipresearch.com
actual impact" of the anticorporate farming laws
before tossing them out.
While the Nebraska
"opinion appears to be
seriously flawed,"
McEowen holds little hope
for reversal through
appeal. Instead, Congress
should "address the anticompetitive effects of
concentrated agricultural
markets and vertically
integrated production
supply chains" these
court-approved assaults
continue to bless.
A second, important hinge
to these cases is that agbiz
found farmers to front the
corporate court challenges.
In short, farmers loaded
the gun; agbiz pulled the
trigger.
* Item Two: Just days
before Christmas,
congressional scrooges
agreed to cut nearly $3
billion in ag spending over
the next five years. The
path was greased by
opinion makers like the
Washington Post which, on
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Oct. 19, used the
upcoming budget fight to
note:
"As with Hollywood Mafiosi,
the
farmers'
lobbying
muscle is based on a
combination of charm,
thuggery and bribery. They
exploit urban sentimentality
about the pastoral idyll.
When
sentiment
and
charm don't work, farmers
get their way with other
tactics. The American farm
lobby ... makes slightly
more than $50 million
worth of political donations
in each election cycle."
December, in three of the
past five years, net income
on the Illinois' farms
surveyed was less than the
government payments
received. Indeed, without
government payments, 40
percent of the farms in the
survey would have logged
negative incomes in the
past six consecutive years.
* Item Three: Despite all
the D.C. sanctimony over
federal farm subsidies, 31
percent of 805 farms in a
statewide University of
Illinois study pocketed less
than $20,000 in income in
2005.
* Items Four and Five: If
the already put-in-place
2009 federal estate tax
exemption of $3.5 million
was the law in 2000, only
65 farms nationwide would
have paid any estate taxes
that year, according to the
non-partisan
Congressional Budget
Office. Using the same
2000 IRS data for 2006,
when the exception rises to
$2 million, only 124 farm
estates across the country
would have paid taxes.
Additionally, noted the U of
I study released in
According to an Aug. 31
survey by the Illinois
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
Society of Professional
Farm Managers and Rural
Appraisers, 56 percent of
all land buyers in the state
during the first six months
of 2005 used 1031 TaxDeferred Exchanges to
avoid federal capital gains
taxes while pushing land
prices to more than $5,000
per acre in many prime
farmland areas.
As such, why aren't farm
groups - and their
expensive lobbyists fighting for tax changes to
drain the 1031 price
pressure that affects every
working farmer and
rancher as hard as they
are for estate tax changes
that affect only a handful?
Guebert's weekly column is
published in more than 75
papers in North America.
Contact him at
agcomm@sbcglobal.net.
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Omaha World-Herald
Go to top
January 7, 2006 Saturday Iowa; Nebraska, Sunrise Editions
NEWS; Pg. 02B
Beef export session planned
Elizabeth Ahlin,
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
The program will break down the
procedures, which are not widely
understood, Doty said.
Iowa cattle producers will have a chance
to learn more about exporting beef to
Japan during a Webcast from 7 p.m. to 9
p.m. Monday.
Japan recently relaxed its two-year ban on
U.S. beef, but not all cattle qualify to be
exported. Japan will not accept beef from
cattle older than 20 months.
Specific procedures must be followed to
prove the age of cattle, said Doug Doty,
Fremont County extension education
director.
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Speakers also will address the possible
market and price changes that may result
from resuming beef exports to Japan,
once the biggest importer of American
beef.
The Webcast will originate from the
Fremont County Extension Office in
Sidney.
More than 40 Iowa State extension
offices will host the Webcast, which
requires a $5 registration fee. Cattle
producers should contact their local
extension offices to register.
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Electronic Clipping
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Go to top
January 6, 2006 Friday
LIFE; Pg. 5B
Mary Swander's work presented Sunday
A dramatic presentation of Mary
Swander's "Driving the Body Back" will
be from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday at
Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality
Center, 120 E. Boyson Road in Hiawatha.
The work dramatizes the stories of a
family of eccentric characters with funny
and moving scenes of immigrant pioneers,
bootleggers, butchers and bird watchers.
Fiddle music underscores the themes and
provides transitions.
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The writers are Mary Swander of Kalona,
a professor at Iowa State University, and
Teri Jean Breitback, the artistic director of
the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre Co. in
West Liberty.
Admission is $20. For information, call
319-395-6700.
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
AgWeb.com
Go to top
January 5, 2006
Economist: Pork Demand the Big Unknown
HIGHLIGHT:
John Lawrence looks at
demand prospects
From Pro Farmer
Julianne Johnston
Iowa State University
ag economist John
Lawrencesays the big
unknown in the lean hog
price outlook is pork
demand. He notes
demand for pork was
very strong in late 2003
and 2004, with some
quarters posting an
increase in supply and
an increase in price at
the same time.
"For the year of 2004,
per capita pork
consumption decreased
1% and Iowa farm level
prices increased 33%,
an approximately ten
times bigger impact than
was expected," he notes.
However, it appears that
2005 is returning to
reality, he adds.
"Preliminary data
indicates that per capita
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pork consumption
decreased 2.9% and
prices also fell 4%. The
question is what will
happen to demand in
2006. Unlike supplies
that can be tracked from
inventories and biology,
demand is difficult to
predict. Economists
generally believe that
demand is a function of
the number of
consumers, the price of
substitutes, consumer
income, and consumer
preferences."
"While total supplies are
expected to increase,
per capita domestic
consumption may
increase only slightly
thanks to continued
strength in pork exports.
Supplies of competing
meats are expected to
be close to 2005 levels
setting up a supply
scenario similar to 2005
but with slightly more
pork," says Lawrence.
Lawrence says exports
are expected to increase
in 2006, but perhaps not
at the 25% growth rate
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seen in 2004-05 due in
part to expansion of beef
exports. "That leaves
consumer income and
their preferences," he
says.
"Consumer income has
been impacted by rising
energy prices. Gasoline
is down from its
$3/gallon peak early in
the fall, but appears to
have settled in the
$2/gallon range
compared to
$1.79/gallon national
average a year ago.
Home heating cost
estimates are expected
to be 25-40% higher
than last winter," he
says. "This increased
pressure on consumer
spending will likely
impact their purchasing
decisions including for
food. Higher priced and
away-from-home food
will likely be impacted
more than the lower
priced and at-home
meals. Thus, bacon
cheeseburgers may be
replaced with ham
sandwiches or a pork
loin roast may be
Electronic Clipping
replaced with pepperoni
pizza."
"Most analysts credit the
low-carb trend with
supporting demand in
2003 and 2004.
Indicators suggest that
while protein
consumption is higher
than before the low-carb
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
craze, the rate of growth
of new high protein
dieters has slowed and
perhaps even declined,"
he adds.
In conclusion, Lawrence
says, "Thus, pork
demand, while still above
its pre-2003 levels, will
likely be below its 2003-
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04 level in the year
ahead. Because it is
difficult to predict, the
market may have trouble
anticipating weaker
demand. Add in larger
and expanding pork
supplies and 2006 looks
like a year to be more
aggressive on locking in
prices."
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The Associated Press State & Local Wire
January 5, 2006, Thursday, BC cycle
Go to top
New TV show focuses on "Living the Country Life"
By AMY LORENTZEN,
Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa
As suburbs spread ever farther from the city, more American families find themselves
"Living the Country Life" - the title of a slick new television show offering tips on
gardening, livestock and pastoral panache.
Meredith Corp.'s 30-minute show, which airs four times a week through April on cable
network RFD-TV, targets the growing number of homeowners who live on rural
acreages.
The show offers tips on property upkeep, gardening and cooking, said Betsy Freese, the
show's creator and host. It covers such topics as weed control, raising llamas and
outdoor meat smoking. Segments on "cool country tools" showcase hedge trimmers to
horse trailers.
Patrick Gottsch, RFD-TV president, said such programming is viewers' No. 1 request.
"They have got this land now and they have got a fence to build and want to get a couple
of horses or raise some animals, do something with the land," he said. "They are hungry
for information and news and features on living in rural America."
Paul Lasley, a sociologist at Iowa State University, said there is a trend of people
moving to acreages, especially near cities. Some do so for privacy, others to be more in
touch with nature, he said.
"This is a lifestyle choice that people want to have the amenities of rural living, but they
want access to the amenities offered by urban or city life," Lasley said.
According to 2000 Census figures, about 15.3 percent of Americans - or about 43 million
- live in rural areas that are not on a farm, and are not part of a town or other
incorporated area.
In Iowa, about 15.1 percent, or 443,000 people, fit that same criteria.
"Clearly, Meredith is targeting this as a set of interest that is a viable market," Lasley
said.
Freese is editor of Living the Country Life magazine, a spinoff of Successful Farming,
Meredith Corp.'s first magazine.
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www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
She said the show isn't aimed at farm families, but could appeal to them as well. About a
third of the segments are shot outdoors on her family's 36-acre spread south of Des
Moines, where her big red barn serves as a backdrop.
Her three children can be seen tending goats and pigs. Her husband, Bob Freese, a
veterinarian, even helped her book some of the guests, who walk viewers through the
process of installing wire fencing, learning to ride an all-terrain vehicle or buying a horse.
"Obviously, we're not on a set. It's probably more freewheeling than Martha Stewart
would be," Betsy Freese said.
Freese, who also serves as livestock editor at Successful Farming, said her favorite
segments involve animals: how to raise pigs, exhibit calves or train a stock dog to
shepherd sheep.
One segment of the program, focusing on small machinery, is hosted by Deere & Co.,
maker of John Deere tractors and mowers. Spokesman Michael Gustafson said his
company has high hopes for "Living the Country Life."
Country homeowners have been hard to reach because there are few magazines and
radio outlets targeting the rural lifestyle, he said.
RFD-TV, which takes its name from the U.S. Postal Service's old "rural free delivery"
routes, reaches more than 29 million households via Mediacom, DirecTV, the DISH
network and other cable systems.
"I hope what it will do is it will elevate the RFD-TV programming to the point where this
becomes almost a Home & Garden TV for the rural market," Gustafson said.
Trying to reach acreage owners with how-to information isn't a new concept for Bob
Hamblen, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension director for Boulder County.
He said the extension service there began developing programs and educational
materials for such landowners, including a seven-state effort in the late 1990s called
"Living on the Land."
It includes instructional materials on topics such as weed management, water quality
and how to care for pasture and livestock.
New acreage owners are often highly educated, higher-income and in their late 30s and
up, he said. Most don't have a background in farming or ranching, and many don't
realize just how much time and money it will take to care for their property.
"It's almost like the old show 'Green Acres,"' Hamblen said. "They are a very receptive
individual group that wants information, they are very technologically astute ... It's a
whole new clientele base."
On the Net:
Meredith Corp.: http://www.meredith.com/
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
RFD-TV: http://www.rfdtv.com/
Living the Country Life: http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/
Successful Farming: http://www.agriculture.com/ag/sfonline/
Colorado State University Cooperative Extension: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
National Hog Farmer Online Exclusive
Go to top
January 5, 2006
Sow Herd Training
Farrowing and breeding/gestation
personnel in Nebraska can improve their
skills by using a convenient and low-cost
format to connect with University of
Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and Iowa State
University (ISU) experts.
Producers can review a CD-ROM, meet
for three phone bridge/polycom (audio and
visual communication) conferences, do
homework, take tests and grade
themselves on the materials, says UNL
swine specialist Duane Reese.
Meetings will be held in the UNL Extension
offices in Gage, Cuming or Madison
counties.
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
Group names and dates are:
Niche/Alternative Production System
Farrowers ? Jan. 18, Feb. 1 and Feb. 15;
Conventional Farrowers ? Feb. 8, Feb. 22
and March 8; and Conventional
Breeding/Gestation ? Jan. 27, Feb. 10 and
Feb. 24.
Instructors include Reese; Don Levis, UNL
Extension educator; Locke Karriker, ISU
swine veterinarian; and Dave Stender,
ISU area livestock specialist.
To register, call (402) 472-6430 or for
more information contact Reese by phone
(402) 472-6425 or e-mail
dreese1@unl.edu.
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
National Hog Farmer Online Exclusive
Go to top
January 5, 2006
NSIF Honors Two Iowa Stater's
A faculty member and a graduate student
from Iowa State University's animal
science department were honored last
month at the National Swine Improvement
Federation (NSIF) annual meeting.
Max Rothschild, Charles F. Curtiss
Distinguished Professor in Agriculture,
received the Charles Stanislaw Memorial
Distinguished Service Award. Clint
Schwab received the Lauren Christian
Memorial Graduate Student Award.
Rothschild is recognized as a foremost
animal geneticist and for his work
coordinating research on the U.S. pig
genome. He teaches undergraduate and
graduate courses as well as heads an
extensive research program.
Schwab's graduate work focuses on the
effects of long-term selection for reduced
backfat and increased loin muscle area on
meat and eating quality traits, and
selection for intramuscular fat in live pigs
using real-time ultrasound.
The faculty award honors achievement in
performance testing programs.
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Go to top
January 2, 2006 Monday
FRONT SECTION
Experts see the decline of rural U.S. quickening Federal farm,
development programs at risk
BY PAUL BARTON
ARKANSAS DEMOCRATGAZETTE
WASHINGTON - Despite
70 years of federal effort to
address the imbalance,
rural America remains
significantly less
prosperous than urban
America, prompting new
thinking about how to stem
its decline.
Arguments over rural
development will likely
intensify, observers say, as
the Bush administration
readies next year's budget
proposals, Congress
prepares for a 2007 rewrite
of farm programs and
world trade talks continue
to take aim at crop
subsidies.
At stake is the use of tens
of billions of dollars in tax
money as well as the wellbeing of 59 million
Americans, including 1.15
million Arkansans, who the
Census Bureau says live in
"nonmetro" areas.
"With the exception of rural
areas close to metropolitan
areas, much of rural
America is in decline,"
Paul Lasley, sociologist
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at Iowa State University,
said in an interview.
It is an observation
repeated often in recent
years.
A 2001 study published by
the Federal Reserve Bank
of Kansas City stated:
"Significant portions of rural
America are in trouble. For
some parts of rural
America, the slow slide to
no longer being viable economically, socially or
politically - is within sight."
A 2005 analysis by the
National Rural Network, a
coalition of dozens of
advocacy groups,
described rural America as
made up of places "where
poverty has persisted for
decades, where
populations have been
declining for half a century,
where private sector
growth has been minimal
and where local schools,
hospitals and churches are
often only a memory of its
aging residents." A wealth
of national statistics back
up such gloomy
assessments.
Median family income in
rural areas is 25 percent
lower than in urban areas,
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and rural poverty is 28
percent higher. Moreover,
88 percent of the nation's
"persistently poor" counties
are rural, reports the Rural
Policy Research Institute at
the University of Missouri.
"The percentage of poor
that is in rural America is
increasing. That is our
challenge," said Charles
W. Fluharty, director of the
institute.
The South, in particular,
suffers. While 20 percent of
Americans reside in rural
areas, 34 percent of
Southerners do, according
to the Southern Growth
Policies Board, a research
and planning organization
located in Research
Triangle Park, N.C.
Poverty rates in the rural
South are almost 50
percent higher than in
metro areas, while
educational attainment
remains "markedly lower,"
it added in a recently
released report. Infant
mortality rates are higher
and access to physicians
lower.
FEDERAL NEGLECT?
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What's more, rural
advocates say, rural areas
get the short end of federal
spending, at least $100 a
year less per capita than
urban areas, resulting in a
$6.5 billion "funding
disadvantage," the National
Rural Network contends.
Of the money that does go
to rural areas, it says, at
least 70 percent is in
transfer payments - Social
Security, Food Stamps,
Medicare
and
other
programs - rather than in
funds
that
help
communities build water
and sewer systems and
other infrastructure needed
for economic development.
Behind all these studies is
the continued belief by
politicians and regional
development experts that it
is inherently in the national
interest to revitalize rural
America - despite
disagreements over how to
do it.
"This nation is not going to
be able to compete unless
all of its people, regardless
of where they live, are able
to compete," said Elaine
Matthews of the North
Carolina Rural Economic
Development Center.
"I think most of us are not
ready to imagine an
America without viable
smaller communities,"
added Jim Clinton, director
of the Southern Growth
Policies Board. "Not
everyone should have to
live in cities." And Mitch
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Chandler, spokesman for
the Arkansas Department
of Economic Development,
said, "We can't give up on
our small towns." Aside
from that, the economic
benefits to the country
would be enormous, writes
Mark Drabenstott of the
Kansas City Federal
Reserve Bank. "Vibrant
regional economies" are a
key to future growth of the
overall national economy,
he said in a paper released
in May.
in Arkansas got about $22
million in 2005.
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMS
Affordable housing remains
"a huge part" of rural
development, the Rural
Policy Research Institute's
Fluharty said. Not only
does it help attract
residents to rural areas, it
helps them build wealth
that can open other
opportunities, such as
college educations.
Totaling the dollars
committed to rural
development depends on
who's counting. Many
lawmakers, for instance,
consider highway
construction a rural
economic development
program.
Annually, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
has a ruraldevelopment
budget of about $12 billion,
but the overwhelming
majority of that comes in
loans made for such things
as utility services and
housing. Only about $1
billion is direct spending,
according to an analysis by
the Center for the Study of
Rural America, part of the
Federal Reserve Bank of
Kansas City.
Another $1 billion to $2
billion a year goes to rural
communities through
Community Development
Block Grants. Rural areas
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One of the Arkansas
groups funded is Universal
Housing Development
Corp., run by Patricia
Atkinson in Russellville.
Since 1976, the program
has helped low-income
rural Arkansans build their
own houses, establishing
"sweat equity" that makes
them become owners. The
program averages 20-25
houses a year.
But for the most part,
Fluharty and others say,
federal community- and
rural-development
programs remain an
uncoordinated hodgepodge
of programs spread
throughout the
government. Agencies as
disparate as Treasury, the
Small Business
Administration and the
Department of Defense, to
name a few, offer more
than 180 combined
economic-development
programs.
Said Drabenstott: "Simply
put, federal economic
development is a soup
concocted by many chefs."
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Numerous other think
tanks have described them
as redundant and wasteful,
at times prompting small
towns to separately acquire
assets that they could
share.
FARM BILL DEBATE
The Bush administration
proposed as part of its
2006 budget the
consolidation of 18 major
development programs,
including the always
popular Community
Development Block Grants,
under the Department of
Commerce. It also
proposed to reduce funding
for those programs from
$5.6 billion to $3.7 billion. It
would have eliminated the
Economic Development
Administration, an agency
that Arkansas lawmakers
have long pointed to as
helpful to rural areas.
Bush called it the
"Strengthening America's
Communities Initiative," but
it was quickly rejected by
Congress because it
altered too many popular
programs.
The administration has
signaled that it plans to
repackage the proposal as
part of its 2007 budget
proposal.
While Bush's plan draws
fire, there remain plenty of
advocates for reshaping
federal rural economicdevelopment programs.
The debate is expected to
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help shape the 2007 farm
bill.
Groups such as the Rural
Policy Research Institute
and the Center for Rural
Affairs, located in Lyons,
Neb., contend at least
some of the $15 billion to
$20 billion the federal
government spends
annually on crop subsidies
be reallocated to other
parts of the rural economy,
especially to
"microbusinesses," firms of
five or fewer employees.
community as well," said
Dana Brooks, head of
congressional relations for
the federation. "Commodity
producers continue to need
that safety net." The Center
for Rural Affairs applauds
the debate.
Said Chuck Hassebrook,
director of the group: "The
good news I see is a
growing recognition among
policymakers that if we
want these communities to
survive, we have to do
something."
That's the future of the
rural economies, they add,
not farming driven by
subsidies. That money,
they say, often is siphoned
off by landlords that live in
other states rather than put
into local economies.
"The greatest indicator of
economic lag is the degree
to which a community is
dependent on commodity
agriculture," said Fluharty.
And, sooner or later, world
trade disputes, where
subsidies are taking center
stage, will force a reduction
in the federal payments
American farmers receive,
he said.
The American Farm
Bureau Federation begs to
differ. Spend more money
on rural development, the
group says, but don't take it
from crop subsidies.
"You take money out of the
pocket of farmers, you take
it out of the rural
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Ag Web
01/05/06
Economist: Pork Demand the Big Unknown
From Pro Farmer
Julianne Johnston
Iowa State University ag economist John Lawrence says the big unknown in
the lean hog price outlook is pork demand. He notes demand for pork was very
strong in late 2003 and 2004, with some quarters posting an increase in supply
and an increase in price at the same time.
"For the year of 2004, per capita pork consumption decreased 1% and Iowa
farm level prices increased 33%, an approximately ten times bigger impact than
was expected," he notes.
However, it appears that 2005 is returning to reality, he adds. "Preliminary
data indicates that per capita pork consumption decreased 2.9% and prices also
fell 4%. The question is what will happen to demand in 2006. Unlike supplies that
can be tracked from inventories and biology, demand is difficult to predict.
Economists generally believe that demand is a function of the number of
consumers, the price of substitutes, consumer income, and consumer
preferences."
"While total supplies are expected to increase, per capita domestic consumption
may increase only slightly thanks to continued strength in pork exports. Supplies
of competing meats are expected to be close to 2005 levels setting up a supply
scenario similar to 2005 but with slightly more pork," says Lawrence.
Lawrence says exports are expected to increase in 2006, but perhaps not at
the 25% growth rate seen in 2004-05 due in part to expansion of beef exports.
"That leaves consumer income and their preferences," he says.
"Consumer income has been impacted by rising energy prices. Gasoline is down
from its $3/gallon peak early in the fall, but appears to have settled in the
$2/gallon range compared to $1.79/gallon national average a year ago. Home
heating cost estimates are expected to be 25-40% higher than last winter," he
says. "This increased pressure on consumer spending will likely impact their
purchasing decisions including for food. Higher priced and away-from-home food
will likely be impacted more than the lower priced and at-home meals. Thus,
bacon cheeseburgers may be replaced with ham sandwiches or a pork loin roast
may be replaced with pepperoni pizza."
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"Most analysts credit the low-carb trend with supporting demand in 2003 and
2004. Indicators suggest that while protein consumption is higher than before the
low-carb craze, the rate of growth of new high protein dieters has slowed and
perhaps even declined," he adds.
In conclusion, Lawrence says, "Thus, pork demand, while still above its pre2003 levels, will likely be below its 2003-04 level in the year ahead. Because it is
difficult to predict, the market may have trouble anticipating weaker demand. Add
in larger and expanding pork supplies and 2006 looks like a year to be more
aggressive on locking in prices."
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Agri News, IL
01/11/06
Western bean cutworm now migrating east
DES MOINES, Iowa — Western bean cutworm, a destructive insect that can
cause severe yield loss in cornfields, spread this past growing season into the
northern half of Illinois and many counties in Wisconsin.
Before 2005, the insect was confirmed in Iowa, southern Minnesota, northern
Missouri, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, western Kansas and the
panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. This leaves many growers wondering about
WBC control measures for 2006.
Traps set by extension agents from the University of Illinois and the University of
Wisconsin, as well as Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. agronomists in Illinois,
confirm the spread of this insect into these states
Young WBC larvae feed on tassels and silks, but eventually tunnel through the
silk channel to reach the developing kernels. Direct yield loss occurs as the
larvae consume all or parts of developing kernels. Partially consumed kernels
may be further attacked by ear molds or secondary insect feeders that enter the
ear through the WBC feeding channel.
"When fields average several WBC larvae per plant, yield losses may be as high
as 30 percent to 40 percent," said Paula Davis, senior marketing manager for
insect and disease control traits at Pioneer.
Historically, management of WBC has been limited to careful scouting and timely
application of insecticides. Growers now have access to in-plant control of WBC
with the Herculex I and Herculex XTRA insect protection traits. Herculex XTRA
contains both the Herculex I trait and the Herculex RW rootworm protection trait.
"Because of the labor intensive nature of scouting, the critical timing needed for
insecticide applications and the possibility that multiple treatments may be
necessary, insecticides may not be an economical or effective solution to the
WBC problem," David added.
Although it is unclear why the WBC has expanded its area so quickly, several
factors may be involved including mild winters, reduced use of foliar insecticides
and increased use of no-till systems
Research conducted by Iowa State University in 2005 evaluated hybrids with
the Herculex I technology at four locations in two Iowa counties – Hardin and
Buchanan. The researchers counted the number of ears infested with WBC in
hybrids with Herculex I and YieldGard Corn Borer traits compared to their base
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genetics (isolines).
Counts found that 14.5 percent of the Herculex I ears were infested with WBC,
whereas 78.4 percent of the YieldGard Corn Borer ears were infected and 56.5
percent of the isoline ears were infested. This research demonstrates that the
Herculex I trait in corn hybrids significantly reduces risk of WBC damage.
Additional research conducted by Pioneer in 2002 and 2003 on field-sized sideby-side plots confirms those findings. In 2002, hybrids with the Herculex I trait
were evaluated next to hybrids with similar base genetics at 16 locations. Hybrids
with Herculex I had 4 percent ear infestation, whereas the base genetics were 25
percent infested.
In 2003, research compared Herculex I with YieldGard Corn Borer. The study
found only 5 percent of the Herculex I ears were infested, while hybrids with the
YieldGard Corn Borer gene were 37 percent infested.
Research conducted by Pioneer in 2004 evaluated whether hybrids with
Herculex I reduced mold levels compared to their non-Bt counterparts in areas
with heavy western bean cutworm infestation. Researchers sampled 10 random
ears from hybrids with the Herculex I trait and a non-Bt and/or YieldGard Corn
Borer hybrid at each of the six locations.
"Hybrids with the Herculex I trait greatly reduced the occurrence of WBC feeding
and mold," Davis said. "In contrast, hybrids with the YieldGard Corn Borer trait
and conventional hybrids had similar levels of feeding and mold."
As a result of these and other studies, Pioneer researchers confirm that hybrids
with the Herculex I or Herculex XTRA trait offer very good protection against
WBC feeding.
In addition to guarding against western bean cutworm, the Herculex I gene
protects the corn plant against European and southwestern corn borer, black
cutworm, fall armyworm, corn earworm, sugarcane borer, southern cornstalk
borer and lesser cornstalk borer. Herculex XTRA protects against western,
northern and Mexican corn rootworms. Herculex XTRA guards against a broader
range of above- and below-ground insects in corn than any other in-seed product
on the market.
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Agri News, MN
01/10/06
Lawmakers consider tax incentives for
beginning farmers
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
Agri News staff writer
DES MOINES -- Passing tax incentives to encourage landowners to rent land to
beginning farmers is supported by both Republicans and Democrats.
Last year, a last-minute Senate amendment giving sales tax rebates for livestock
equipment resulted in Gov. Vilsack vetoing a bill that created incentives to rent to
new farmers. The governor said he would support the bill if the sales tax
amendment was removed.
House Agriculture Committee chairman Jack Drake, a Lewis Republican, said
beginning farmer incentives should easily pass.
Senate Agriculture Committee co-chairman David Johnson, an Ocheyedan
Republican, expects the bill to pass swiftly in the Senate.
"We want to pass a beginning farmer tax credit that Gov. Vilsack will sign,'' said
Charles City farmer and Democrat Rep. Mark Kuhn. "Entry into agriculture is
limited by high capital costs. Drake expects some discussion of livestock
regulations, a perennial topic.
Kuhn said he will continue to push for local control of large livestock confinement
units.
The House Agriculture Committee will look at the rights of property owners,
Drake said. He's heard from several people concerned about the June 2005 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling in Kelo vs. the City of New London, Conn. The court
upheld the city's decision to condemn private property to give to a development
because it would generate more tax revenue.
Kuhn wants the Legislature to substantially increase funding for the Iowa State
University veterinary medicine college, a must if the state hopes to have a
strong livestock industry. Kuhn said House Democrats support another round of
tax credits to encourage wind turbine construction. The credits created last year
were quickly used.
Johnson said the Senate ag committee will consider an Iowa Department of
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Agriculture and Land Stewardship proposal to establish an equine development
commission to promote the horse industry.
He will advocate for an additional $5 million for the Watershed Improvement
Review Board. That board awarded its first round of grants late last year.
Eugene Fraise, Co-chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has pre-filed
a bill requiring that residential land owners soil test lawns before applying
fertilizer.
"I'm concerned about phosphate getting in our waters,'' said Fraise, a Fort
Madison Democrat.
Economic development in rural areas is a top issue, said Senate co-president
Jack Kibbie, an Emmetsburg Democrat. He thinks the Values Fund may need to
be changed to level the playing field for rural Iowa. He wants a venture capital
fund created for rural businesses, and a mechanism to allow small businesses to
pool resources to buy health insurance. Kibbie said there may be discussion
about increasing separation distances between large livestock confinement units
and public waters, residences and parks. Kibbie will offer a bill requiring that
meatpackers buy 25 percent of their daily kill on the open market. The
Legislature also needs to provide funding for energy assistance for low income
Iowans.
House Majority Leader Chuck Gipp hopes to see property tax reform that ties
residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial property together for tax
purposes. The Decorah Republican wants increased funding for soil conservation
efforts.
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Associated Press
12/31/05
‘Water for Iowans’ coalition formed
DES MOINES (AP) -- What began as a shaky partnership between farmers and
environmentalists has grown into an unlikely coalition to improve Iowa’s water.
A group called Water for Iowans, comprising 15 farm groups and 80
environmental organizations, is sending stronger messages these days after the
two sides worked out differences.
The coalition has been meeting informally for a couple years but leaders initially
did not speak publicly because they weren’t sure their ideas would mix.
“These are groups that had been lobbing grenades at each other,” said Larry
Kallem, a representative from Iowa farm groups and the coalition’s first president.
“The trust that has been built between the two groups hasn’t been there in the
past. But, after talking with each other for some time, we’ve discovered we’re not
as far apart as we thought.”
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) held public hearings this fall
to address its proposal for stricter standards for rivers and streams. Public
response showed many people blame ag for the state’s water-quality problems.
Iowa has more than 200 impaired waterways, and DNR statistics show ag is to
blame for 90 percent of the nitrogen in Iowa’s waterways and 80 percent of the
phosphorus. The pollution can cause fish kills and health threats for swimmers.
The coalition is trying to find solutions, although group leaders acknowledge it
will be a challenge.
Water for Iowans grew out of a presentation in April 2002 given by two Iowa
State University faculty members — Stanley Johnson, the outgoing vice
provost for ISU Extension, and economics professor John Miranowski. The
two advised farm and commodity organizations to take a “performance-based”
approach to water quality. Under that approach, water quality would be
monitored to determine if conservation practices are working.
If they don’t work, find ones that do, Miranowski said. He criticized how state and
federal programs have helped farmers with erosion control, although there were
never indications controlling erosion improved water quality.
“The government is putting in money, yet the environmentalists keep saying
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farmers are polluting the environment,” Miranowski said. “Producers are tired of
always being called the bad guys, no matter how hard they’ve tried to be good
stewards of the land and improve water quality.” The performance-based
approach was not initially welcomed by farm groups, Miranowski said.
Coalition leaders said the performance-based approach is now catching on, and
environmental groups are allowing farmers flexibility to test strategies.
“Farmers can come up with a lot of innovations,” said Linda Kinman, who
succeeded Kallem as president of Water for Iowans. “That’s what they’re good
at.”
Also ran in: Iowa Farmer Today
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Associated Press
01/03/06
Snowmobilers push for higher fines
DES MOINES, Iowa Iowa snowmobilers are expected to make a fresh push for
changes this year at the Statehouse.
They want lawmakers to increase the fines for riding violations and to put more
tax money in the state's snowmobile fund.
Terry Durby of the Iowa State Snowmobile Association says they want to put
more teeth into the fines to deter the "few" snowmobilers who are causing the
problems. The association, which includes 65 clubs in the state, also wants Iowa
to invest more money in its own trails.
Iowa has over 35-thousand snowmobilers. A recent study by Iowa State
University shows they spend 56 (m) million dollars a year on equipment and
activities.
Durby says if Iowa spent more money it might capture more of the 16 (m) million
dollars that Iowa snowmobilers spend in other
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Also ran in: WHO-TV, IA;
WQAD, IL; WOI-TV, IA
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Bismarck Farm & Ranch Guide
1/05/06
Elevators will be among first inspected when
FDA starts enforcing bioterror law
By TIM HOSKINS, For Lee Agri-Media
AMES, Iowa - Bulk grain elevators could be the first places to be inspected by
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under its bioterror law.
In June, the FDA will start enforcing the new bioterror law related to
recordkeeping of food products.
UNDER THE law, human food and animal feed are considered food, according to
Charles Hurburgh, an Iowa State University professor of agricultural and
biological engineering.
Under the law, records for feed will need to be kept one year.
“It is time to start thinking about this,” he said.
At the recent Integrated Crop Management Conference here, Hurburgh said
while listening to an FDA presentation, bulk grain elevators are on the FDA's
radar.
He expects elevators to be among the first inspected because the FDA knows
food processors and food companies can follow the paper trail.
Evidence of this is how food companies can issue a food recall, he said.
Under the FDA inspections or audits, they will likely look at ways to trace grain to
where they got it. That could mean back to an individual farmer or a certain load.
HURBURGH SAID farmers are exempt from the law. Other exemptions are
meat, poultry and eggs handled by the USDA.
“It is unclear how the FDA will look at scale tickets,” he said.
In the meantime, there are procedures for grain elevators to prepare for
enforcement of the law.
Some suggestions include: Put the initial bin assignment on scale tickets, date
and time stamp scale tickets, record date and time of in-house transfers, and
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record load-out information, such as time to fill and percent gate openings.
Hurburgh said the recording the initial bin assignment could eliminate half to twothirds of the bulk grain to help determine where it came from if they had to trace a
problem.
After the first audits, the practice with the best traceability standard will likely
become the industry standard.
In addition, Hurburgh suggests elevators develop a flow chart and written
procedures of their operations.
While the suggestions are made because of the bioterror law, he said the
process could help elevators improve their efficiency.
A flow chart and written procedures could help a company see overlaps of steps
in their chain.
Hurburgh has been working with F.C. Stone, a Des Moines-based commodity
trading company, on details of implementing a new law.
They ran a mock recall to test their traceability system. Under the trial recall,
Hurburgh took information of grain loaded onto train cars. They were able to
trace the grain to 10 farmers.
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Crookston Daily Times, MN
01/09/06
Annie's Project aims to boost farm women's
management skills
A Times Report
Northwest Minnesota farm women have an opportunity to improve their farm
management skills by participating in a six-session program called Annie's
Project. Participants will receive information and management training in financial
and production record keeping, grain marketing and financial risk management,
human resource and time management, retirement, farm transfer and estate
planning.
Annie's Project was developed by Ruth Hamilton a University of Illinois Extension
Farm Business Management educator based on the experiences of her mother,
Annie Fleck. Annie was a city girl and school teacher who married a dairy farmer.
She kept the books for the farm but lacked the farm management skills to feel
confident in helping her husband with management decisions. When her
husband died unexpectedly, Annie was forced into the management role.
Through a grant from the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) Annie's
Project was developed to help other farm women wanting to improve their farm
management skills.
Annie's Project has been offered in Illinois and Iowa for the past two years.
According to Bob Wells, Iowa State University Extension educator, Farm
women enjoy meeting and learning as a group. They mentor each other and
become close friends through the process. Wells also states,
'While the curriculum is provided to cover important risk management topics, the
sessions allow participants to discuss farm related topics that are most important
to them." Finding answers quickly to farm management problems while trying to
balance family, farm chores and off-farm work is a challenge. Participants will
learn where to look for answers and will also examine some decision making
tools that will help them make good decisions.
In Thief River Falls, each three-hour session will be taught by educators from the
University of Minnesota Extension Service and from the Northland College Farm
Business Management program. Since computers are such an important tool to
aid the decision making process on the farm, a portion of the 18 hours of study
will take place in the computer lab at Northland. A $50 registration fee includes
farm management computer software and other class materials provided to
participants for the six session program.
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Annie's Project is being sponsored in the region by the Minnesota Association of
Wheat Growers through an Outreach Partnership grant from RMA. Like Annie,
many farm women are employed off the farm, so evening classes are scheduled
to accommodate their work schedule. The sessions in Thief River Falls will be
held on Monday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. beginning on Jan. 23 at the Northland
College on Highway 1 East in Thief River Falls.
To register for Annie's Project contact Colleen Harris at 1-888-241-4527 or for
more information, including other locations in the region where Annie's Project
sessions are being held, contact your local or regional Extension offices. Class
size is limited to 20 participants so call today to reserve your spot.
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Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, IA
01/04/06
Drought likely to follow mild winter
PHIL ROONEY, Staff Writer
01/04/2006
Earlier predictions of a less-than-dramatic winter are largely proving true.
So are concerns about a possible drought in southwest Iowa.
Dale Mohler, a forecaster with Accu-Weather, the private company that provides
weather information to The Daily Nonpareil, and Iowa State University's
Elwynn Taylor said a slightly warmer-than-usual and a drier-than-usual winter
was predicted.
Temperatures in the Central Plains are milder than normal, and that might have
been the case for December if not for an early cold spell that left the month's
average 1 degree below normal at around 24.4 degrees. December precipitation
was about 10 percent less than normal.
Mohler said January is likely to end up slightly colder than normal if current
weather patterns give way as expected to a northwesterly flow. That change in
the pattern would bring colder air in from Canada to replace the warmer Pacific
flow that has been setting the tone.
"It is possible to get a pretty bitter cold air mass to come down later in the month
or the first part of February," Mohler said.
Taylor also looks for alternating warm and cold periods, caused by the rotation of
low-pressure areas around the Arctic Circle.
Winter weather has been pretty boring in the Central Plains, Mohler said, but
that's not true everywhere as California has experienced heavy rains and snow
while dry conditions have led to grassfires in Oklahoma and Texas.
"It's not a Dust Bowl yet, but it's heading that way," he said.
Different farming methods, including irrigation, would make it difficult for another
Dust Bowl to happen, Mohler said. Producers also plow their fields with the idea
of reducing possible wind erosion.
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"There wasn't any conservation - little or no conservation," Mohler said.
Very dry conditions are found on three sides of southwest Iowa, and a couple of
weeks without precipitation could put the area into a drought, he said.
ISU's Taylor said several eastern Iowa counties received more than an inch of
moisture early this week, but December, January and February remain the three
driest months of the year.
"We are definitely in danger of serious drought," he said, adding that four of the
past six years have found much of Nebraska and its neighbors in that situation.
A southerly air flow could bring some moisture to southwest Iowa from the Gulf of
Mexico; but Taylor said that will be a hit-or-miss situation until March, and this
area will not see any significant moisture until there is some gulf air.
"This airflow becomes a common thing in May," he said. It's also something that
southwest Iowa, northwest Missouri and Nebraska depend on during that month.
"The rule of thumb ... if the rain fails, the non-irrigating crop fails."
The current dry situation has been associated with warmer-than-usual
temperatures north of Hawaii, known as PDO for Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
"History shows this type of event has persisted about 10 years," Taylor said.
A second situation that could compound the dry conditions is colder than usual
ocean temperatures near the equator that are leading toward La Niña conditions.
Those years tend to be drier than usual from Illinois west, starting in the spring
and through the summer.
La Niña could be in place by early March, Taylor said.
"La Niña often results in drought Corn Belt-wide," he said. "Doubles the risk,
almost exactly."
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Des Moines Register
01/05/06
Yepsen: One legislator making a drive at
raising pickup fees
By DAVID YEPSEN
REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST
At least one Iowa legislator wants to do something about urban cowboys and
their boutique pickups taking advantage of a break intended for farmers.
State Sen. John Putney, a Gladbrook Republican, said he will introduce a bill in
the coming legislative session to plug the loophole.
Good luck, senator. There are enough political ruts in this road to, well, break an
axle.
At issue is an Iowa law that specifies pickup trucks pay a registration fee of only
$65. Car owners and sport-utility vehicles pay up to several hundred dollars
more. The break on pickup-truck fees dates to the days when about the only
people who had pickups were farmers.
That's no longer true. According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, there
are 694,000 pickups in Iowa. Only 80,000 are driven by farmers.
It's one thing to give a tax break to a farmer driving a beat-up International so he
can haul seed to the field or feed to his cattle. It's another to give it to some
insurance-company executive driving a froufrou machine so he can fantasize of
fording rivers or surviving snake bites.
It would be easy to dismiss this issue as nothing more than a petty abuse of the
law, except this practice is costing Iowa's road fund between $50 million and $70
million a year in lost revenues. That means fewer roads get repaired or built in
the state, and that cheats us all.
Farm groups have finally figured out they're not doing rural communities — which
need highways — any favors by defending a break used by some guy in West
Des Moines.
Here's how Putney's plan works: His bill wouldn't take effect for two years, and it
would grandfather current owners under the present system. So, if you've got a
pickup, you'll pay $65 for as long as you own the vehicle. And you've got two
years to buy another and lock in that bargain.
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But pickups purchased after the two-year cutoff will pay a fee based on a formula
that factors in the vehicle's weight and value. So, if you want to buy a brand-new
tank complete with satellite radio, TVs, video games and global-positioning
systems, you will pay more than the guy who buys a used Japanese import.
What you do with the truck will be irrelevant. You can drive it to feed cattle or to
feed your ego.
Putney said his approach will work for several reasons. It gives everyone fair
warning this is going to change. It won't go into effect until after the election,
which should make it easier for politicians to withstand the heat. It will change
gradually. You won't pay the higher fee until you buy another pickup. Eventually,
all owners will be treated alike.
He admits his bill will have an uphill fight. A few years back, Republican
legislators attacked some Democrats after they raised fees paid by mini-vans.
And, a number of non-farmer lawmakers also drive macho machines.
But Putney understands the politics of this is changing. He lives northeast of
Marshalltown. Every day, he sees constituents drive on a nice new four-lane road
to good-paying jobs in Des Moines and then return on that same road (with their
paychecks) to the quiet life of small-town Iowa.
Iowans who want nice highways for their communities should object to pickups
that pickpocket the road fund.
• Mark Your Calendar: The Legislature opens Monday, and the lobbyists are
planning their annual welcoming reception for Tuesday night at the Quality Inn
and Suites (better known to the political community as the old Starlight Inn).
Admission is free, but donations are being accepted, and the proceeds will go to
a new political-science scholarship fund the "Third House" is endowing at Iowa
State University. This year's event will honor the late Serge Garrison, the wellregarded former director of the old Legislative Service Bureau who later became
a lobbyist.
The Third House hosts the reception to celebrate the start of each legislative
session. The group also sponsors a golf tournament each June to mark the
Legislature's adjournment, which is an even greater cause for merriment.
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Des Moines register
01/05/06
Encourage snowmobiling . . .
but crack down on scofflaws
By REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
The definition of recreation is "enjoyable, leisurely activity." What frequently
comes to mind are bicyclists, walkers and bird watchers. Add snowmobile riders
to your mental picture.
Iowa doesn't have mountains or oceans, but it gets its fair share of snow.
Snowmobile riders try to make the most of it, and Iowa should encourage and
welcome them. An Iowa State University study found snowmobile riders spend
an estimated $53.6 million per year on equipment and activities.
Terry Durby, president of the Iowa State Snowmobile Association, has suggested
that the state dedicate a portion of fuel-tax money, earmarked for Iowa roads, to
the snowmobile fund. The fund, managed by the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources, pays for services such as maintaining the trails and ditches
snowmobile riders recreate in.
But Iowa can support and welcome an activity without siphoning off fuel-tax
dollars.
Instead, the state can generate additional dollars by increasing snowmobile
registration fees. Riders now pay $15 a year, which adds up to about $500,000
for the snowmobile fund, according to David Downing of the DNR. A $30
registration fee would double the fund, to $1 million.
Other ways to support snowmobile riding: Local communities can try to
accommodate requests for land use from any of Iowa's 65 snowmobile clubs. So
can farmers, other owners of private land and government entities with
jurisdiction over recreational trails.
Snowmobile enthusiasts should come together with other groups, including
bicycling clubs, to work toward the goal of expanding recreational trails in Iowa
that cyclists could use in the summer and snowmobile riders could use in the
winter. They also should work toward the common goal of increasing public land
in the state.
Lawmakers should consider another of Terry Durby's suggestions: raising fines
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for snowmobile violators. Snowmobile riders who break the law pose a risk to
other Iowans and Mother Nature.
Bigger penalties wouldn't be a big boon to state coffers — the Iowa Department
of Natural Resources issued only 92 snowmobile citations in 2004 — but higher
penalties might discourage irresponsible behavior.
Steve Fairbanks of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said snowmobiles illegally
riding on recreational trails chip asphalt and damage the shoulders, leaving the
area devoid of vegetation in the spring. There's also a lot of illegal snowmobile
use in the Cottonwood Recreation Area adjacent to the Des Moines River, he
said.
Iowa snowmobile enthusiasts have 5,000 miles of trails to ride in this state. They
should stick to their designated areas or pay a high price. That's if the authorities
can catch them.
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Des Moines Register
01/06/06
Wrestler pins hopes on trip to Japan
By RICKY RUD
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT
Neal Isaak is taking this semester off from classes at Iowa State University in
search of international wrestling fame, far from the campus that once was home
to Olympic wrestlers Dan Gable, Cael Sanderson and Chris Taylor.
Isaak, a 28-year-old civil engineering graduate student, leaves today for Tokyo to
train and compete as a professional wrestler known as Dakota. While the stage
in Japan is different from the Olympic spotlight, Isaak said he is making the trip
for a chance to live out a childhood dream.
Promoters from a Tokyo-based pro wrestling company selected him to train at
their martial arts center and perform in Japan for three months, Isaak and ISU
officials said.
Other U.S. wrestlers will come and go in three-week increments, but Isaak is the
only one staying for three months straight, he said. Isaak, who is 6 feet, 215
pounds, will be making the trip alone. Eventually, he will be joined by wrestlers
from Minneapolis, Chicago and New York City.
Isaak's Japanese venture doesn't surprise his mother, Gladys Isaak.
She watched her son's passion for pro wrestling grow during the years, she said,
recalling that he would spend Thursday nights with his father, who died Nov. 28,
watching professional wrestling together in their home in southwestern North
Dakota.
"I thought he was crazy when he was little and that as he got older, he'd grow out
of it," she said.
Gladys Isaak said Neal's father was aware of his son's opportunity to go to Japan
before his death and was proud of him.
"I love to go and watch, but it still makes me nervous," she said.
Isaak began his pro wrestling career in 1999 when he enrolled at Ken Patera's
All-Star Wrestling Alliance Training Camp, a promotion and training school for
wrestlers, in Minneapolis.
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Then, he wrestled under the name Dakota Kid, which has been shortened to
Dakota. Both names were chosen to show pride in his home-state heritage, he
said.
In January 2001, Isaak enrolled at North Dakota State University in Fargo. During
that time, he continued wrestling at high schools, county fairs, charities and
fundraisers.
Isaak said family and friends would describe him as usually quiet and reserved.
While performing, though, it's a different story, he said.
"When you get in front of a crowd, the goofier you act, the more they like it,"
Isaak said.
In 2002, Isaak established a training relationship with pro wrestling legend Harley
Race, who operates an academy in Missouri. Race's popularity in Japan landed
Isaak the opportunity he has now, Isaak said.
As his coach, Race sees a bright future for Isaak.
"He's a wrestling talent and is as charismatic as anybody wrestling today," Race
said of Isaak. "The fans love this kid and he performs for them."
While Isaak is in Japan, he will go through a cycle of traveling for three weeks of
competing, followed by three weeks of training.
He will return to the United States on April 1. What happens after that depends
on how well he performs, he said.
Isaak still plans to get his master's degree in the spring or summer of 2007.
"Wrestling is my passion, but engineering is a pretty reliable job," he said.
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Des Moines Register
01/06/05
ISU senior to deliver speech honoring King
By DANA BOONE
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Cameron Creighton feels nervous and privileged at the prospect of delivering a speech
next week during a celebration honoring late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The 21-year-old senior industrial technology major at Iowa State University said his
speech will encourage teens to study black history. He said he'll also tell the audience
what he thinks King would say about the progress of blacks today.
"He would be proud . . . but he would probably be a little upset that we're kind of relaxed
at this stage," he said. "That, as a people, we're not really pressuring society and the
government to change some of their ways."
Creighton said Hurricane Katrina, many of whose victims were black and too poor to
leave ravaged areas of New Orleans, illustrates race and class problems that still exist.
"It took a disaster like that to show us the light and how things are in terms of a racial
divide that wasn't really visible, but it was there," he said.
Creighton is the keynote speaker at the second annual King birthday celebration,
sponsored by the Des Moines branch and youth council of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Ministerial Alliance.
"First the Dream, Now Where Are We?" will be at 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at Corinthian Baptist
Church in Des Moines. Youth choirs from Maple Street Baptist Church, Mount Hebron
Baptist Church and Union Baptist Church will be featured, said Gretchen Woods , youth
council adviser.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929. The federal King holiday this year is on Jan. 16.
Creighton, who helped reactivate Des Moines' youth council in 2001, said the lack of
black history in school curriculum hinders blacks. But blacks haven't pushed enough for
curriculum changes, he said. An African-American studies course in college helped raise
his awareness about black history and the social and cultural climate of America, he
said.
Creighton hopes those who attend next week's celebration will be inspired to learn more
about King's life and black history.
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Des Moines Register
01/06/06
Many upward swings in Des Moines area
Better business tied to improved economy
By PATT JOHNSON
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
Jason Anderson is taking a quick breath from the busy holiday season at his Ankeny gift
basket shop, Caught by Surprise, before he begins hauling out merchandise for
Valentine's Day.
For now, he and partner Steve Burns are basking in the glow of a successful Christmas
selling season.
"It was phenomenal," Anderson said. "It was our first holiday and we expected to be
busy, but we were very busy every single day."
Retailers generally are reporting increased holiday sales in the Des Moines area from a
year ago, signaling an improving economy in Iowa and greater consumer confidence, a
state economist said.
"The indications going into the holiday season were for reasonable increases based on
the rate of income growth" in the state - about 3.5 percent, said David Swenson , an
economics professor at Iowa State University. "People's willingness to buy was
higher, and that should have warmed the hearts of mall operators."
Holiday sales totals for most retailers won't be available for several weeks, and state
sales tax figures will be tallied at the end of January. Some of the major national chains
reported mixed December sales on Thursday, suggesting high energy costs were having
an effect.
Among those recording a strong showing was Target, where sales increased 4.7 percent
in stores open at least a year.
Christmas shoppers at the SuperTarget in Urbandale scooped up electronics with fervor,
said Craig Coughlin , a store manager.
"The Xbox 360s went out of the store as fast as we got them in," he said of the video
game consoles. "Sales of all electronics keeps getting bigger and bigger."
Nationally, Wal-Mart recorded its weakest December performance since 2000.
Shoppers at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Ankeny waited until the two weeks before
Christmas to do most of their shopping, store manager Chad Sloat said . While the store
had strong post-Thanksgiving receipts, holiday sales, especially for toys, kicked in right
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before Christmas, he said.
"I think people were holding back a little and doing more comparison shopping," Sloat
said.
Some local merchants saw bigger increases, including Fair World Gallery, a shop in
West Des Moines' Valley Junction that sells merchandise made by growers and
craftsmen in poor countries.
Overall sales were up 10 percent at the small store, which completed its second holiday
season. "We are definitely headed in the right direction," co-owner Christine McNunn
said . She also is hoping to continue improving Internet sales, a new segment of her
business.
Merle Hay Mall's overall sales likely increased in the "solid double digits," predicted
Elizabeth Holland , asset manager at Merle Hay. Mall tenants are not required to report
sales figures until mid-January, but from comments she's heard from store managers,
Holland said, sales were strong for most merchants.
Traffic at the mall was up compared to the same time last year, with the center's parking
lot full more days during the holiday shopping season than last year, Holland said.
Gift-card sales were strong, retailers said.
Holland said Merle Hay had a 20 percent increase in dollar volume in mall gift
certificates this season. About 80 percent of the certificates will be redeemed at mall
stores and restaurants within three months, she said.
At the Urbandale SuperTarget, a majority of the gift cards are redeemed in a week or
two after Christmas, Coughlin said.
Why holiday sales matter
Holiday sales in Iowa, which are tabulated in the last three months of a year, account for
about 30 percent of total annual retail sales tax receipts, according to the Iowa
Department of Revenue.
Gift card tips
Iowa Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald recommends using a gift card soon after it is received
to avoid possible service fees or expiration. Other tips concerning gift cards:
• Some gift cards depreciate in value month-by-month if a card has been inactive for a
certain period of time.
• Read cards carefully for fees and expirations. Iowa law requires these to be printed on
the card or certificate.
• Some retailers are able to reissue a lost gift card if consumers have the original
receipts.
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Des Moines Register
01/06/06
Areas picked for MyEntreNet
Regions will get training and money as part of the entrepreneur
program.
By JERRY PERKINS
REGISTER FARM EDITOR
Four areas have been selected as the first communities to work with MyEntreNet, an
entrepreneurship development system that organizers hope will spur business growth in
rural Iowa economies.
The four areas are Carroll, Decatur and Poweshiek counties and the Red Rock area in
Marion County. They were selected through a competitive application process.
MyEntreNet seeks to create community support networks for entrepreneurs, startup
assistance for businesses and advanced technical assistance and training for existing
companies. It also links rural entrepreneurs with financial resources needed to launch or
expand small companies.
It is run by the University of Northern Iowa's Regional Business Center/Small Business
Development Center through a $155,000 grant from the Iowa Board of Regents' $5
million allocation from the Grow Iowa Values Fund, a $50 million-a-year program to
boost Iowa's economy.
The four regions will receive two years of customized technical assistance, training and
networking assistance from Iowa business development organizations, including UNI's
Regional Business Center, the Iowa Small Business Development Center System, UNI's
Institute for Decision Making and the University of Iowa's John Pappajohn
Entrepreneurship Centers.
Each region also will receive a $2,500 grant from the Iowa State University
Community Vitality Center to support its business-assistance efforts.
"We were looking for communities poised for change and ready to create a culture to
support entrepreneurship," said James Hoelscher , MyEntreNet program manager.
"These four regions understand how locally owned business can help transform their
economy and they will see some exciting changes in the coming year."
Carroll and Poweshiek Counties will begin the two-year startup phase in February and
Decatur County and the Red Rock area will begin in the fall.
More communities will be added each year with Grow Iowa Values Fund support through
2015.
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Des Moines Register
01/08/06
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Des Moines Register
01/08/06
For more Iowans, it pays to give
Two programs aim to keep wealth in communities
By DONNELLE ELLER
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
Youngsters in St. Ansgar will attend preschool. Uninsured families in Story
County will have greater access to a dentist. Homebound residents in Mitchell
County will see regional concerts.
Across the state, two sister programs are making it easier for Iowans to help
communities in need. And they're helping keep wealth from leaving Iowa,
supporters say. Over the next 10 to 15 years, as much as 50 percent of Iowa's
farmland — about 28 million acres, representing about $73 billion in value — will
be sold or passed on to another generation.
The two programs:
Endow Iowa: This gives residents a 20 percent tax credit — up to $100,000 per
individual — for their donations to permanent community endowments.
The program is so popular, the $2 million allocated in tax credits for charitable
contributions in 2005 has been tapped out.
Iowans who missed last year will be first in line for $2 million in tax credits this
year. The program, which began in earnest in 2004 with $1 million in tax credits,
runs through 2008.
The incentives will pull $10 million annually into community foundation treasure
chests across the state.
The donations help build endowments, the income from which is used annually to
finance groups seeking to improve the community — from education and human
services to recreation and historic preservation. State law requires that no more
than 5 percent of an endowed fund be spent each year.
The County Endowment Fund: This divvies up 0.5 percent of state gaming
revenues among community foundations in 85 counties that have no gambling.
This year, each county will receive nearly $64,000, 75 percent of which will go for
charitable work. The groups will build endowments with the remaining 25
percent.
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To qualify for money, many of the county foundations have affiliated themselves
with larger foundations, gaining administrative savvy and investment power. For
example, the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation is working with 30
county foundations. Twenty more groups are affiliated with the Community
Foundation of Waterloo-Cedar Falls and Northeast Iowa.
A dozen community foundations have qualified on their own. State law requires
the money in all foundations meet federal requirements on financial oversight.
Depending on the size of the fund, the groups must undergo an audit or financial
review annually.
In many parts of the state, it's the first time a countywide foundation has been
established. And it comes at a critical time, as Iowa's population ages and shifts
from rural areas.
Iowa State University's Community Vitality Center says cities and towns must
figure out ways to capture wealth before it disappears. Community foundations
can persuade landowners and others to leave portions of their estates to their
hometowns, instead of heirs living elsewhere.
"People can leave their money in the place where they raised their families and
earned their money," said Suzan Shierholz, president of the Community
Foundation of Greater Story County.
The requests for Endow Iowa tax credits have been pouring in over the last two
months, said Mike Miller, who leads the investment management team at the
Iowa Department of Economic Development. He hadn't yet tallied how many
donations missed out on the tax credits this year.
"We have more demand than supply," Miller said. "I anticipate much greater
demand in the next few years as these community foundations become more
active."
Foundations already are seeing greater contributions.
"We're getting donations from people who have never given to our foundation
before, and it's because of the tax credits," said Mary Ann Burk , chief executive
of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls foundation. "It's really encouraging private
investment and donations to benefit the different communities across Iowa."
The Des Moines area foundation said it has received about $3 million in
donations that will receive Endow Iowa tax credits. Eleven of those 18
contributions are from new donors. The foundation, with a $90 million
endowment, provides $7 million to $8 million annually for projects as varied as
rehabilitating Gray's Lake to beautification of Fleur Drive and Circles of Support,
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a project that matches low-income families with mentors to help improve their
lives.
Most donors already have a "charitable intent," said Johnny Danos, president of
the Des Moines foundation. The tax credits encourage families to leave money
"quicker and in larger amounts."
"The biggest problem we have is with people following through. People plan to
write wills to leave something to charity and they never do," he said.
Des Moines lawyer Mark Feldmann said the tax credits prompted him and his
wife, Dr. Teri Wahlig, to think beyond annual capital drives and giving.
"Endow Iowa really got us thinking in a much longer-term view," said Feldmann,
who declined to say how much money was donated. The couple is setting up a
"donor-directed" plan, allowing them to decide which groups to benefit.
Doug and Debbie Reichardt and Holmes Murphy, the West Des Moines
insurance agency that he heads, provided their "largest single contribution of any
one time," in part because of the tax credits.
Reichardt said he strongly believes in the program's intent, but he'd like to see
lawmakers "remove the handcuffs" that limit the amount of money that can go
into communities for improvements. Allowing foundations to spend up to 25
percent from their endowed funds, instead of 5 percent, would make a greater
difference in communities, he said.
Even with the smaller amounts, the money seeds initiatives and leverages
greater investment in communities. "As we do good in communities, it will entice
others to leave their wealth," said Danos.
For example, Winefest Des Moines, sponsored initially by the Greater Des
Moines foundation, this year "will return $100,000 to the arts and cultural
community," said Danos.
A $3,000 grant to the Story County Community Dental Clinic will be used to
match a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant and hire a part-time dentist,
said Cecelia Nassif, a nurse who manages the clinic. The dentist will work with
patients before their dental problems become emergencies.
Deciding how to divvy up money has been a tough job in communities new to the
effort.
Shierholz and her Story County board worked to assess the needs in 14 mostly
rural towns. The group received requests for three times more than the $50,000 it
had to award. "All the grants were worthwhile," she said.
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The same was true in Mitchell County, said Brenda Dryer, executive director of
the county's economic development group.
The group provided funding for initiatives ranging from offering screenings for
depression to providing furnishings for St. Ansgar's new rescue center to
providing transportation to housebound residents who want to attend cultural
events.
Mitchell and Story are among the first counties to award their share of the
gaming money. Others will grant the money over the next year.
The community assessments have inspired Shierholz and Dryer to work on
building their endowments, they said.
In Story County, one initiative calls for developing the next generation of
philanthropists.
A grant going to the Volunteer Center of Story County will be used to teach
students — from middle school through college — how to build their own selfsustaining endowment. "We really want to stir an interest in volunteerism and
giving," said Sue North, executive director of of the Volunteer Center of Story
County.
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Des Moines Register
01/08/06
Iowa top 10
Cool things to do this week
1. SPACE SPECTACULAR SPECIAL EVENT: Saturday at the Science Center
of Iowa
The Science Center of Iowa and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium present
space expert and author Andrew Chaikin as he provides three interactive
programs on the future of the U. S. space program. Visitors can try telescope
viewing and galaxy counting with the Iowa State University Astronomy and
Physics Department, launch Stomp-Rockets 50 feet in the air in Founder's Hall
and explore the cosmos in the SCI Star Theater. Tickets can be purchased for
the IMAX movie "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon," with footage
shot by the 12 Apollo astronauts who have walked on the moon. The movie will
be shown throughout the day. Admission to the special event is included with
paid admission to the Science Center and is free for members. (515) 274-6868;
www.sciowa.org.
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Des Moines Register
01/09/06
Sagario: Turn a deaf ear to those auditory
assaults
By DAWN SAGARIO
WORKBYTES COLUMNIST
It's a couple of weeks after Christmas, but the auditory assault, courtesy of
Britney Spears, is still fresh in Emily Marchino 's mind.
Marchino, who works at clothing store New York & Company at Merle Hay Mall,
had to listen to one music tape (sent from headquarters) during every eight-hour
shift she worked — for about a month. The Britster sang three of the songs piped
throughout the store for the holiday season.
"I was like, 'Can other artists make Christmas music?' " recalled an irked
Marchino, 19.
Thankfully, yuletide Britney has since been banished. On a recent morning,
Marchino was enjoying a mixed tape with renditions from Maroon 5 and Jason
Mraz .
But the novelty of the fresh set of tunes, too, will probably wear thin soon,
Marchino said.
"I like this music, but when I hear it repeated in the car, the last thing I want to
hear is 'work music.' "
Marchino has company among those nettled by a Britney-fest.
Proud new mama Federline tops the list as the most annoying musician that
British retail workers have to endure while at work, according to online
recruitment site Retailchoice. The company polled about 1,400 employees and
assembled a Top 10 list of auditory offenders that included Usher and Kylie
Minogue.
A third of the respondents said they too had been abused by the same CD
played up to 20 times a week, according to the press release.
For some workers like Marchino, being subjected daily to a loop of mind-numbing
music (or even worse, Muzak) is just part of the job. But it's easy to see how
listening on the radio to Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us" for the 23rd time
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would send anyone screaming from her work station.
There's a conflict of interests when specific music is piped into businesses, said
Paul Lasley, an Iowa State professor and chairman of the sociology
department. At issue is finding a balance between the ambience a business
wants to create, and the varied musical tastes of workers and customers.
"You might find the perfect set of music to create exactly the kind of mood you
want to create," Lasley said. But "perfection" played several times over often
spells monotony for employees. Monotony can breed unhappiness.
A deeper issue is choice, he said. Employees subjected to specific music at work
don't have a say in the tunes they listen to. That lack of choice could inevitably
impact productivity.
Lasley pointed to workplace studies done in the early 1900s. The "Hawthorne
studies," conducted at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago,
analyzed how a variety of working conditions (i.e. lighting, group size, etc.)
affected productivity.
The result? "They found . . . essentially. . . . that whatever you did that
demonstrated to the employees that you were paying attention to them increased
the productivity," Lasley said. "Which is somewhat commonsensical — that if you
have happy employees, then they'll be more productive than unhappy
employees."
Variety is one solution, Lasley added.
Some workers at Merle Hay Mall say it's just a matter of tuning the music out.
PacSun sales associate Travis Ramsey, 18, listens to satellite radio piped into
the store. The catch: It's set to one station.
"It's good music, but after a while you learn to block it out," Ramsey said.
Marchino concurred. She said after three weeks of the same music, you "space it
all off."
Roger Stanley, who works at the Global Cellular kiosk in the mall, sits at a
musical crossroads — in the center of a cacophony of sounds coming from the
radio at the nearby Merle Norman shop, mall music emanating from speakers,
plus the techno music from the Personalized Gifts kiosk adjacent to Stanley's.
"Sometimes, I'll get two or three different music sources here," said Stanley, 35,
who, personally, is a rock 'n' roll kind of guy.
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At Personalized Gifts, Thomas Thammavong was quietly enjoying some mellow
Korean music. Thammavong said he likes to start off his day by playing slow
music to stay relaxed and "thinking straight."
In the evening, he shifts to R&B and techno music. The beats reflect his
clienteles' taste and also energize Thammavong, 25, to create his custom Tshirts and picture-engraved dog tags.
"The music makes you happy. And when you're happy, you can do more stuff —
you can sell, work on your projects," Thammavong said.
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Des Moines Register
01/19/06
University online donations soar
U of I, with $1.4 million, leads other state schools
By ERIN JORDAN
REGISTER IOWA CITY BUREAU
Online giving to Iowa's public universities has skyrocketed, particularly at the
University of Iowa, where Web donations for 2005 reached nearly $1.4 million.
Online donations still represent only a small portion of all university giving, but
the ease and flexibility of giving online may be a key to snagging younger donors,
foundation officials and donors said.
"I love it when there's an opportunity to donate online," said Sean Davison, 39, a
U of I graduate who lives in Carson City, Nev. "I can control the timing and I can
control where (the money) goes."
Davison and his wife, Nancy, 34, use the U of I Foundation's Web site to donate
about $1,500 a year to the College of Business, where he earned his master's
degree in 1998, and the physical therapy graduate program, where she earned
her master's degree in 1997, he said. The couple also give online to Wartburg
College, where Nancy earned an undergraduate degree.
In 2005, the U of I, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa
brought in more than $1.5 million from almost 5,500 online donations, according
to preliminary year-end figures from the schools.
Online giving has not replaced phone and mail solicitations, said John Glover,
director of annual and special gifts for the ISU Foundation.
"You must ask to receive," he said, noting that the biggest gifts come from
donors cultivated over time through phone calls and visits from university
officials.
But the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and natural disasters around the
world brought online fundraising to the foreground, Glover said.
"This is an arena that has really exploded in the last few years," he said. Online
donors, who tend to be younger and more affluent, may not be wooed to donate
by more conventional methods, Glover said.
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The U of I has seen a greater share of online giving than ISU and UNI. The U of
I, which ranked 15th among schools across the country for online giving in 2004,
brought in $1.4 million online in 2005. That was nearly 0 .9 percent of the total
$156 million raised by the foundation that year, said Hilery Livengood, director of
Web strategies for the U of I Foundation.
"We started early on and we've worked really hard to grow our program,"
Livengood said about online giving.
The U of I Foundation's Web site, which includes a feature that allows donors to
designate multiple programs as recipients, has brought in $2.4 million since it
debuted in 2000. New U of I donors gave $100,000 online in 2005, Livengood
said.
ISU raised about $160,000 in online donations for 2005, which is 0.2 percent of
total donations of $81.2 million, according to preliminary year-end numbers from
the foundation and WOI radio. These figures do not include the athletic
department, which doesn't distinguish between online and other types of giving.
UNI's online giving — $16,000 in 2005 — was also about 0.2 percent of the
school's preliminary year-end total of $8.6 million.
Fundraising experts expect online giving will continue to increase as donors
become more comfortable using credit cards online and learn to appreciate the
ease of point-and-click philanthropy.
"A lot of it depends on how much an institution promotes it as an option," said
Rae Goldsmith, vice president for communications and marketing for the Council
for Advancement and Support of Education.
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Des Moines Register
01/10/06
Letters to the Editor
By REGISTER READERS
Same old story on Register's bowl headline
What a disappointing and unnecessary "cheap shot" in the Jan. 1 front-page
headline, "Same Old Story." How pathetic to discredit the effort of the ISU
players, staff and fans. They could have folded in the first quarter and did not.
-George Wood, West Des Moines.
***
When I went out to purchase my Sunday Register on Jan. 1, instead of plunking
down my money, after seeing the headline, I decided to boycott that issue. I have
come to expect political bias in the Register, but I was unaware that its bias
carried over onto the football field.
The headline, "Same Old Story," was rude and insensitive to the ISU collegiate
athletes who played their hearts out in that game, as well as their loyal fans.
We should be proud of all of our state university football teams this year. Two
teams played in bowl games, and one in a national championship. What's wrong
with a headline that exhibits pride in that accomplishment rather than a putdown?
-Kathy Ford, West Des Moines.
***
Comparing the two bowl game front-page headlines reveals some interesting
differences.
Jan. 1, "Same Old Story: Cyclones Lose Lead, Then Lose Game on Late Field
Goal."
Jan. 3, "It Was That Close: Huge Hawkeye Rally Falls Short After Offsides
Penalty."
So the 'Clones were the same old losers while the Hawks came so close but for a
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penalty. What an interesting and subtle difference.
Both teams made errors. Both teams rallied. Both teams suffered questionable
calls. And both teams played tough football that should make any Iowan proud.
Yet Iowa State gets negative front-page put-downs and Iowa fans and players
get hugged once again by the Register.
It would be nice if the Register headline writers could recognize Iowa has two
great football programs and both deserved a positive headline after their bowl
games.
-Gary Knox, Eldora.
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Des Moines Register
01/11/06
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Des Moines Register
01/11/06
Proposal to increase beer taxes upsets
distributors, restaurants
Legislative leaders aren't enthusiastic about the proposed
change, either.
By TIM HIGGINS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
A six-pack of beer would probably cost about 6 cents more under Gov. Tom
Vilsack's proposal to increase the tax on the alcoholic beverage, state officials
say.
Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed a beer tax increase Tuesday as a way to help craft
his state budget. He said 10-cent-per-gallon increase would raise about $7
million for the state's general fund.
The Democratic governor said the idea is in response to critics who have said it
was unfair of him to seek a tax increase on cigarettes but not beer.
The idea left many foaming.
Beer distributors and restaurant associations said that such a proposal would
hurt business and that the tax paid by retailers would get passed on to the
customer.
"One of these days, they're going to try to force a lot of people out of business,"
said Doug Alberhasky, manager of John's Grocery in Iowa City.
Ajani Thomas, 21, an Iowa State University senior from Natchez, Miss., said
he doesn't like the idea of raising so-called sin taxes. "Taxing alcohol and
cigarettes isn't like taxing people who make more money. It's just because you
do something other people may not approve of. I understand it, but I don't
necessarily agree with it."
Vilsack has also called for an 80-cent-per-pack increase on cigarettes to raise
$130 million for health care programs.
A top GOP Statehouse leader, meanwhile, says the proposed tax increases
won't go anywhere this session.
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"Joe Six-Pack can count on the speaker of the House to protect him," House
Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican said. "And I don't even drink — go
figure."
Under the plan, the 19-cent-a-gallon tax collected on beer that wholesalers sell to
retailers would increase by 10 cents a gallon to 29 cents.
The beer tax was last increased in 1986, by 5 cents.
The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division estimates the increase would amount to
about 1 cent extra for a 12-ounce beer.
"I think there is broad public support for a cigarette tax increase — I am less
enthusiastic about a beer tax increase," said Senate Democratic Leader Mike
Gronstal.
The Iowa Wholesale Beer Distributors Association wasn't pleased to hear the
proposal. The group's executive director, Sheila Douglas, said a tax increase
would hurt small businesses in Iowa, in particular ones that compete with
companies in neighboring states.
"We will oppose that," she said. "Iowa wholesale beer distributors are small,
family-run businesses. One-third of Iowa's population lives in border
communities. If there is an increase, the beer wholesalers would not be
competitive."
Bob Fahr of Fahr Beverage Inc., who distributes Anheuser-Busch beers
throughout central Iowa, echoed those comments. He said history has shown
customers will cross the state line to buy cheaper beer if prices increase.
Doni DeNucci of the Iowa Restaurant Association said any increase in the tax to
retailers would surely find its way to customers.
Scott Carlson, managing partner of Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewery,
agreed. "Brilliant. Brilliant," he said sarcastically of the governor's proposal. "I am
not a fan of any tax. It makes everything more expensive."
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Des Moines Register
01/11/06
Woodbury supervisors approve organic
ordinance
Vendors will have to buy organically grown foods from nearby
areas.
By JULI PROBASCO-SOWERS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Woodbury County supervisors approved a measure Tuesday that they hope will
boost organic farming in western Iowa.
Food vendors working for the county will now have to purchase as many organic
food products as possible within a 100-mile radius of Sioux City, according to the
new policy.
The program breaks ground in this part of the country, said Rich Pirog,
marketing and food systems program leader for the Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.
"We've been helping Woodbury County with this initiative and I believe it's the
only one of its kind in the Midwest," he said.
County officials want to stimulate economic development in rural areas by adding
value to agriculture and spending the taxpayers' money in the county, said
Woodbury County Supervisor Mark Monson.
"Organics is a mechanism that would create small businesses," he said.
"Organic farming is something that is booming right now. I'm thinking if we got 1
percent of the agricultural market to go into organic foods it would stimulate a
new venue for young folks.''
The economic benefit for the county could be thousands of dollars, said Rob
Marqusee, rural economic development director for Woodbury County. He is the
person who proposed the measure.
The county spends about $462,000 per year on food vendors, with $281,000 of
that being actual food costs. The organic food policy would increase those costs
by about $9,000, Monson said.
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But the local economy would benefit as a result of the dollars spent and re-spent
in the region, said Marqusee, who added the policy could be abandoned if costs
become prohibitive.
Monson said he has heard a few concerns voiced by traditional farmers worried
about chemical use next to organically farmed ground.
Organic farmer Cyril Venner of rural Arcadia said organic farmers usually plant a
buffer crop along their property when it adjoins a traditionally farmed field.
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Farm News
12/23/05
Poll finds farmers pleased with current farm
policy
By KRISTIN GREINER- Farm News staff
AMES — It appears that Iowa producers believe that the basic direction of the
2002 farm bill should continue and serve as a model for the 2007 farm bill,
according to results from the 2005 Iowa farm and rural life poll.
Producers also noted in the poll—which most in the industry already know—that
rising land values have become a hurdle and meth has become a problem.
The questionnaires in this year’s poll were mailed to more than 1,800 farm
operators on April 1, with more than 1,200 farm operators responding. In that
survey, producers expressed their opinions about the 2002 farm bill on 12
statements by using a five-point scale ranging from strongly disagreeî to strongly
agree.î
The majority of Iowa farmers responding said that the income protection the
current farm bill offers is adequate and that, overall, the program has been
successful. Producers also expressed support for developing markets through
the promotion of exports and alternative energy development, as well as support
for conservation through the continuation of the Conservation Reserve Program
(CRP) and the need to address environmental issues and general support for
conservation.
Producers were evenly split on supply management policies, with 29 percent
agreeing, 26 percent disagreeing and 25 percent saying they are not sure.
Producers also were divided in their opinions about the cost of the 2002 farm bill,
with 33 percent agreeing it has been too expensive, 34 percent disagreeing and
33 percent saying they are not sure.
Similar to the responses gathered in the 2001 farm poll, this year’s results found
continued high levels of support for export promotion, CRP and alternative
energy development. In fact, 61 percent or respondents indicated that they felt
the 2002 farm bill should be continued in the 2007 legislation and 60 percent felt
it had provided adequate income protection for farmers. Fifty-seven percent felt
the 2002 farm bill was successful.
However, there is no consensus on whether supply management should be
pursued. Farmers were divided in their opinions about the expense of the
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program and 45 percent felt the farm bill did not provide enough assistance to
beginning farmers.
“In spite of their continuing support of the 2002 farm bill, farmers recognize that it
has artificially supported land prices. The conservation provisions of the farm bill,
specifically the CRP program, enjoy wide support. Farmers also would like more
emphasis in the new farm bill to address alternative energy development and
promoting exports,”î said Paul Lasley, chair of Iowa State University’s
sociology department and co-investigator of the study.
The 12 statements about the farm bill on the 2005 survey on which producers
were asked to rate their opinion on a five-point scale were:
The government should devote more efforts to the promotion of exports through
the 2007 farm bill.
The Conservation Reserve Program should be continued.
The 2007 farm bill should provide incentives to allow farmers to participate in
alternative energy development.
The basic directions in the 2002 farm bill should be continued in the 2007 farm
bill.
The 2007 farm bill should provide better income protection.
Overall, the 2002 farm bill has provided an adequate income protection for
farmers.
The 2007 farm bill should do more to address environmental issues in
agriculture.
Overall, the 2002 farm bill has been successful.
Overall, the 2002 farm bill has provided good support for conservation efforts.
Grain production policy should return to supply management (acreage set aside
and deficiency payments.)
The 2002 farm bill has proven to be too expensive.
The 2002 farm bill has adequately addressed the needs of beginning farmers.
Survey respondents also indicated that while rising land values are often used as
a measure of the health of farming, 95 percent agreed that farmland prices are a
significant barrierî for beginning farmers.
“Almost nine out of 10 agreed that farmers should be wary of buying land at
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current prices. Over three-quarters agreed that government subsidies have
artificially raised farmland prices,Ӕ Lasley said.
Methamphetamine addiction was widely acknowledgedî as a major national and
state issue, in the poll, with 60 percent of the respondents seeing the negative
impacts in their communities.
“Almost 80 percent supported the recent state law requiring the retailer lock up
cold medications that are the primary ingredient in meth making,î” Lasley said.
“Eighty-six percent reported that they are using all the recommended practices to
safe guard against the theft of anhydrous ammonia, which is also an important
ingredient in meth manufacturing.
“The high level of agreement of the meth problem in the nation, state, county and
neighborhood stands out as a very serious social problem,”î he added. “Nearly
100 percent defined this as a very serious problem for the nation and state, and
even 60 percent defined meth as problem in their own neighborhood.î”
While 67 percent of farmers are using herbicide-tolerant crops and 66 percent
are using genetically modified seeds, according to poll results, much fewer
farmers are using other innovative technologies available. Only one-fourth of
livestock producers responding to using production stimulants on a regular basis
and only one-fifth of the respondents are using insect growth regulators as an
integral part of their operations.
Furthermore, e-commerce is the least used technology, with only six percent
polled reporting its use on either a regular or trial basis.
Iowa State University Extension received high marks from survey respondents.
Lasley said 70 percent of the respondents rated the quality of
assistance/information from Extension as good or very good. Three-fourths of the
respondents indicated that Extension had been beneficial to their farm operation,
their family and to rural Iowa.
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Farm News
12/23/05
Wintersteen named named ISU ag dean
By RANDY MUDGETT- Managing Editor
AMES — Wendy Wintersteen was named the dean of Iowa State
University’s College of Agriculture after acting as interim dean since the
departure of Catherine Woteki in August.
Wintersteen will permanently assume the title on Jan. 1, 2006.
Wintersteen was selected from a field of five finalists identified through a
nationwide search.
‘‘Dr. Wintersteen has been an exceptional faculty member aAnd administrator in
our College of Agriculture, and she will make an outstanding dean,’’ said Iowa
State University President Gregory Geoffroy in a statement. ‘‘She is very
knowledgeable about agriculture, and she has excellent relationships with people
throughout the agricultural community. We’re extremely pleased that she has
accepted this very important position for Iowa State University and for agriculture
nationally.’’
Prior to becoming interim dean, Wintersteen was senior associate dean of the
college and associate director of the experiment station from 2000 to 2005. In
other ISU positions (1979 to 2000), Wintersteen was entomology professor;
director of Extension to agriculture and natural resources; coordinator of
pesticide management and pesticide applicator training programs; and Extension
associate in the entomology department and two Extension area offices. From
1989 to 1990, Wintersteen also was acting national pesticide education program
leader for the USDA-Extension Service in Washington, D.C.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge said in a statement, “I am pleased that
Dr. Wendy Wintersteen was selected as the new dean of the College of
Agriculture at Iowa State University. Dr. Wintersteen brings knowledge,
experience and dedication to her new position and we look forward to continuing
our work with Dean Wintersteen in her new capacity.î”Also ran in: Iowa Farmer
Today
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Farm News
12/23/05
Locally-grown foods remain in demand
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Farm News, Fort Dodge, IA
01/05/06
Conference addresses grain handling,
bioterrorism
By KRISTIN GREINER- Farm News staff
DES MOINES — The clock is ticking for grain handlers who have just five
months to put an approved recordkeeping process in place in order to comply
with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response
Act of 2002, an issue that will be addressed at the upcoming Agribusiness
Association of Iowa (AAI) Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference, Tuesday
in Des Moines.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials and Iowa State University
(ISU) experts will discuss the record maintenance requirements and how they
will affect the commodity-based grain flow during the session entitled BioTerrorism Act Grain and Feed Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon.
Howard Shepherd, program coordinator with the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative, will
be one of the ISU speakers. Shepherd said those grain elevator operations that
receive, hold and ship raw agricultural commodities of corn and soybeans are
mandated by the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 to register all of their facilities where
the food is received or held. They are mandated to keep records of all grain
received and shipped through the facilities, because of acts of contamination
either by terrorists or by natural contamination, such as aflatoxin.
Feed mill operations that receive raw agricultural commodities and manufacture
animal and pet feed also are required to comply with this law.
The recordkeeping process must be in place by June 2006 and records must
be available to the FDA as soon as possible, Shepherd said, and no longer than
24 hours after a request is made if an act of contamination is tracked to a grain
handling operation.
“The most confusing aspect is the recordkeeping of grain received, held and
shipped,î” Shepherd said. “Grain is co-mingled in the elevator, so how large must
the list be to satisfy the record keeping request? Grain in the elevator can be
turned several times, and who does that process affects recordkeeping. When
grain is shipped, what records must be kept for the load and who is responsible
for the records? What format must records be kept in to comply? What obligation
is there if there are no records?î”
Those questions and more will be addressed at the session. Shepherd said FDA
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officials will present information on the act, while ISU experts will present
information on the act and recordkeeping requirements for grain elevators and
feed mills. ISU also will present information on quality management strategies
that will help address the FDA record-keeping requirements and quality
management traceability for identify values.
“Some people may see this as overkill, but it is a mandated law to protect our
food safety. Food safety is and must be a reality and responsibility by all who
work in the agriculture and food as it moves from the farm to your table,Ӕ
Shepherd said. “This act for food safety validated what the world is asking for in
traceability of commodities as they travel from the farm to the processor to the
store to your table.Ӕ
Those attending the AAI Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference will get first
choice on attending the bio-terrorism session. The conference is open to AAI
members and non-members. More information on the conference is available at
http://www.agribiz.org/.
If there are extra seats available, those interested in attending the bio-terrorism
session, but not attending the conference, should send an e-mail to Lisa Klobank
at lisak@ agribiz.org. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address. You will be notified if there is space available. There will be a $20
charge for those attending only this session.
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Farm News, Fort Dodge, IA
01/06/06
Cutworm makes its presence known in Corn
Belt
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/24/05
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/24/05
Web links specialty goods, market
By Gene Lucht, Iowa Farmer Today
A new Web calculator helps growers find markets for goods, such as these Iowagrown vegetables.
AMES -- A pair of new Web tools could help Iowa farmers not only figure out
what an increase in state market share for specialty crops would mean for Iowa,
but could also connect them directly with places to market their products.
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University
recently launched its Iowa Produce Market Potential Calculator aimed at
providing general information about consumption and production of a variety of
produce items.
That tool is to be joined on Jan. 1 by the Market Maker for Iowa, which will allow
farmers to register and use information from a variety of sources to pinpoint
possible specific markets for their products.
“Using this program, you will be able to pre-sort information,” explains Ray
Hansen, a specialist with the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center at ISU.
“You need to register but then you could get specific information to help you
market your products.”
As an example, a farmer who grows and markets his sheep could use the
program to find areas where certain demographic groups live, then look for
specialty grocery stores or restaurants in those areas.
He or she could get contact information for those target markets.
And, that doesn’t just apply to Iowa.
“Markets don’t know state boundaries,” says Andy Larson, a research specialist
in agriculture at the University of Illinois, where the Market Maker was started.
The system is running in Illinois, and Iowa is heading a long list of states looking
to link into the system and localize it for their own farmers.
“My bias is toward small, family farmers,” Larson says, explaining the program
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could be a useful tool for small niche producers to find new markets and make a
better living.
But, a key to the program’s success is getting farmers to register. Much of the
other information is either generated by the government through the census and
other programs, or it has been purchased from various business and industry
groups.
Therefore, many businesses and potential buyers of agricultural products are
included.
But, many farmers who produce specialty grains or meats or fruits or vegetables
might still be flying under the radar.
So, Larson and Hansen are looking for farmers who are trying to find new
markets for a whole host of products, from asparagus to zinnias.
Meanwhile, anyone may go the the Iowa Produce Market Potential Calculator
and plug in more general scenarios to get a better picture of what Iowans are
doing in growing produce. And, it provides what the potential earnings would be if
Iowa expanded its production of any of the 37 fruits and vegetables listed on that
site.
For example, Iowa grows only about 1 percent of the broccoli eaten in the state.
If the state’s farmers managed to increase that figure to 20 percent, it would
mean $1.04 million more to the state’s farmers.
Users of the calculator may plug in any of the products and get statewide or
county-by-county figures of production and usage.
Then, they may plug in any percentage of increase to see what it might mean for
acres or dollars.
“These are only best averages but they can get a picture,” says Rich Pirog, the
Leopold Center’s marketing and food systems program leader.
Farmers may check out the produce calculator at www.
leopold.iastate.edu/research/calculator/home.htm.
The marketmaker product is expected to be running after Jan. 1.
The Web address for that will be www.marketmakeriowa.com.
To take a look at the Illinois version of marketmaker, go to
www.marketmaker.uiuc.edu.
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/24/05
Iowa’s past reveals rich food history
By Jeff DeYoung, Iowa Farmer Today
Today’s Iowa farms are known primarily for growing corn and soybeans, and
raising hogs and cattle. Production of the Big Four occurs statewide.
But, 85 years ago, many areas of the state were known for regionally produced
commodities such as grapes and cherries.
A report released last fall by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at
Iowa State University examined Iowa’s geography of taste.
Rich Pirog, marketing and food systems research program leader at the
center, says regionally produced, or place-based, foods are popular in Europe.
He believes with Iowa’s food heritage, growers could capitalize on the trend.
“Place-based foods reflect the geography, ecology and culture of a region,” Pirog
says. “It has allowed producers and communities to receive higher premiums that
are consistent over time, because that brand of food, like a Bordeaux wine, is
tied to that region.”
There are many place-based foods throughout the United States, Pirog says.
One of the most well-known is the Vidalia onion.
“Those onions are grown in one of 19 counties in Georgia, because the soil type
is what gives them their sweet taste,” he says.
Perhaps Iowa’s best-known regional product is the Muscatine melon. Pirog says
products like that melon can be protected through trademarks.
“The Muscatine melon is very site-specific but some competitors were growing
melons and calling them Muscatine, when in fact they were not grown there,”
Pirog says. “Those growers petitioned the state Attorney General’s Office several
years ago to get some protection.”
The report looks at how Iowa’s regions were known for specific commodities.
Pirog cites a table in the report that says in 1920, 34 commodities were produced
for sale by at least 1 percent of Iowa farms.
Those items included such commodities as apples (84 percent), cherries (57
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percent), grapes (28 percent), pears (17 percent) and raspberries (7 percent).
Today, only 10 commodities are grown for resale on at least 1 percent of Iowa
farms.
“If you look at it, Iowa really has a unique food history,” Pirog says. “By looking at
this, it could help identify some areas where we could grow these products and
take advantage of that history.”
Examples cited in the report:
= The Delicious apple was developed by Madison County farmer Jesse Hiatt in
the 1870s. He called it the Hawkeye apple, and the name was changed when
Hiatt sold the rights in 1894.
= The grape and wine industry in the Loess hills of Western Iowa was known for
its high quality. In 1926, members of the Council Bluffs Grape Growers
Association received a $16 per-ton premium over the average U.S. price.
= Sac County continues to be known for popcorn production. It began in 1888
when a farmer near Odebolt tried growing several acres of popcorn.
= An Iowan named Robert Fullerton brought back several squash seeds from
Denmark and gave them to the Sestier Brothers, master growers in Des Moines.
Once known as the Des Moines squash, today it is better known as acorn
squash.
“There are many, many stories of different types of foods being produced in
certain locations,” Pirog says.
“What we need to do is find ways to link specific foods with different agri-tourism
projects around the state,” Pirog says.
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/24/05
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/31/05
ISU ag school ‘player’ in development:
Wintersteen
By Gene Lucht, Iowa Farmer Today
As the new dean of the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University,
Wendy Wintersteen is the new kid on the block. But, she’s been hanging around
the neighborhood for a long time.
Wintersteen, named dean of the ag college on Dec. 19, was already serving as
the interim dean before that date and has been at ISU since 1979.
A graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in crop protection in 1978,
Wintersteen came to ISU soon after that, eventually earning a doctorate degree
in entomology. She has served at one time or another as an entomology
professor, director of Extension to agriculture and natural resources, coordinator
of pesticide management and pesticide applicator training programs, and
Extension associate in entomology and two Extension area offices. Just before
being named interim dean, she was senior associate dean from 2000 to 2005.
IFT: You have said you have three broad goals for the college of agriculture.
Could you elaborate on those for us?
Wintersteen: The first involves what we do with our students. We need to be a
regional and national magnet. That means involving students in international
experiences. You know, I read the book, “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the
Twenty-first Century” by New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman, and he
makes some good points about the international nature of business and
economics today. But, involving students also means more interaction with
researchers. And, it means stressing entrepreneurship. Roger Underwood’s gift
of money to the university to support entrepreneurship study gives us something
special in that area, which most universities simply don’t have.
The second goal will be to maintain and build a strong faculty and to use that
faculty to help the state through genomics research and other items.
The third goal is to build more partnerships within the state because ISU and the
agriculture college in particular is a major player in economic development efforts
in Iowa.
IFT: Tell us more about Friedman’s book.
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Wintersteen: He talks about the Bangladore area of India and how that area has
become a center for the computer and service industry because our
communications systems can now move information almost instantly. Oddly
enough, I’m going to India for an international biotechnology conference in
January, so I may get to see some of that. The message is that as we use the
new technologies available to us, information is transferred almost instantly. We
have this new technology. Many businesses have largely adapted to that change,
and we need to as well. People anywhere can now be in the game and we have
to recognize that. The only way we will continue to be successful, both as a
university and also in our Iowa business world, is through innovation and
creativity. We need to recognize that. We need to be embracing opportunity and
embracing change.
IFT: It sounds as if the old adage of teaching students how to think instead of
teaching them some specific technical skill is becoming ever more important.
Wintersteen: Absolutely. We still need to teach the technical skills. But, teaching
students how to learn and how to think and adapt is becoming more important all
the time. The world is changing very quickly, and it appears that rate of change is
only going to get faster.
IFT: Would this also mean international programs, both for ISU students studying
or working abroad and for foreign students coming here, would be more
important? And, was some of that lost in the security effort after 9-11?
Wintersteen: I think so on both counts. These international programs are
extraordinarily important. You know, we’ve trained so many leaders in so many
different countries. That is important, both for those countries and for the college.
We need to be in that game. I think the government will eventually develop or
adapt different policies to welcome that again but we’ve already lost many
international students to universities in Europe or other parts of the world. That is
a loss for Iowa State and for the state of Iowa. Those people both enriched our
state but they also offered new perspectives for our students, and they extended
the opportunities for Iowans and Iowa businesses around the world.
IFT: And what does this mean for farmers?
Wintersteen: Certainly, it all connects to agricultural trade and international
business. But, when we look at programs it could affect other things. One thing
we are working on already is genomics. I think that will be an emphasis. There is
a book out there arguing we are entering the genomics age.
IFT: What do you see as ISU’s strengths as we look at these changes?
Wintersteen: Well, first and foremost, we have an outstanding faculty and staff.
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We also have a terrific group of students. They always impress me. And, we
have a rich history and tradition which lays the groundwork for much of this. But,
beyond those things, we also have worked in recent years to develop an
interdisciplinary approach to research and other items. That puts us in a unique
position to deal with some issues. And, we have always been strong in areas
such as plant and animal breeding.
IFT: What about weaknesses?
Wintersteen: I think perhaps we need to pay more attention to the students
themselves. That means more recruitment of the top students. It means making
sure we have the right curriculum. It means continually working on new
partnerships with government and business, and organizations such as the 4-H
and FFA.
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/31/05
2005 soybean crop quality: Oil up, protein
down
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Iowa Farmer Today
12/31/05
WTO ag proposal includes radical subsidy
changes
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KCCI.com, IA
01/04/06
Grad Student To Attend Pro Wrestling Camp
Wrestler Hopes Move Will Launch His Career
AMES, Iowa -- A graduate school student at Iowa State University is preparing
to spend a semester abroad to pursue his dream as a professional wrestler.
One could say that Neal Isaak leads a double life.
During the week, Isaak is a civil engineering graduate student. On the weekends,
he competes as a professional wrestler.
Isaak is leaving this week for Japan. He'll spend three months in Japan
competing and training with the hopes that the experience will help launch his
career.
Isaak's workouts are intense, but you won't find him strutting around or trying to
show off -- he saves that for the ring.
In the ring, Isaak is better known as Dakota, his wrestler name is short for his
home state of North Dakota.
"I walk out to the ring wearing coveralls and a straw hat, and have some wheat in
my mouth usually and dance around a little bit," Isaak said.
Isaak said he's a different person when he competes.
"Once the wrestling match starts, all that comes off and it's all business," he said.
He's spent the past seven years balancing school and competing around the
Midwest. Now, he's getting his chance to compete in overseas.
"You have got to pay your dues ... and stick it out long enough where an
opportunity like this comes along is really satisfying," he said.
Isaak knows the training won't be easy.
"It's really intense. A gentleman went over earlier this year and he decided to
come back after a week and a half so we'll see how it goes," he said.
It could be Isaak's big break into professional wrestling, but he is also staying
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realistic. That's why he's continued to pursue his graduate degree as a civil
engineer.
"There's very few guys that get to do it and make a living at it and the
opportunities are few and far between, and if you do get one it's not going to last
forever because it takes its toll on your body," he said.
Isaak said his ultimate goal is to make a living as a professional wrestler. He said
that right now he's just happy if he can cover his expenses. If the trip to Japan
doesn't give him that big break, he plans to return to school in the fall.
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Lincoln Journal Star, NE
01/07/06
Fun facts for a not-so fun 2006
By Alan Guebert
Under the pile of wrapping paper left from the holidays and newspapers left from
2005 lurks some not-so fun, 2006 items for the nation, farmers and ranchers.
Item One: On Dec. 15 the Federal District Court for the District of Nebraska ruled
the nation’s toughest anti-corporate farming law, Nebraska’s Initiative 300,
unconstitutional because it violated the “dormant commerce clause” of the U.S.
Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The ruling, which will be appealed by the state, now leaves just nine states with
varying levels of anti-corporate farming laws.
It also cracks the door for the Big Packer Boys to declare open season on
independent livestock producers in the Cornhusker State, the nation’s largest red
meat producer (despite 20-year-old claims that I-300 would kill beef and pork
production there), and one of the last bastions of cash cattle and hog markets.
More darkly, however, the ruling gives agbiz three legal wins in a row over state
anti-corporate farming laws—South Dakota, Iowa and now Nebraska.
All pivoted on one, crucial hinge: smart lawyering that led a more business-pliant
federal judiciary to an ever looser interpretation of the federal dormant commerce
clause that forbids states from enacting “discriminatory” laws to impede interstate
business.
That pliancy is now hardening into case law, notes Roger McEowen, an
associate professor of ag law at Iowa State University, in a Jan. 6, 2006
Agricultural Law Digest article co-authored with ISU colleague Neil Harl, because
none of the three courts examined “the actual impact” of the anti-corporate
farming laws before tossing them out.
While the Nebraska opinion appears to be seriously flawed, according to
McEowen, he holds little hope for reversal through appeal. Instead, he said,
Congress should “address the anti-competitive effects of concentrated
agricultural markets and vertically integrated production supply chains” these
court-approved assaults continue to bless.
A second, important hinge to these cases is that agbiz found farmers to front the
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corporate court challenges.
In short, farmers loaded the gun; agbiz pulled the trigger.
Item Two: Just days before Christmas Congressional Scrooges agreed to cut
almost $3 billion in ag spending over the next five years. The path was greased
by opinion makers like the Washington Post which, on Oct. 19, used the
upcoming budget fight to note:
“...As with Hollywood Mafiosi, the farmers’ lobbying muscle is based on a
combination of charm, thuggery and bribery. They exploit urban sentimentality
about the pastoral idyll... When sentiment and charm don’t work, farmers get
their way with other tactics... The American farm lobby... makes slightly more
than $50 million worth of political donations in each election cycle.”
Item Three: Despite all the D.C. sanctimony over federal farm subsidies, 31
percent of 805 farms in a statewide University of Illinois study pocketed less than
$20,000 in income in 2005.
Additionally, noted the U of I study released in December, in three of the last five
years net income on the Illinois’ farms surveyed was less than the government
payments received. Indeed, without government payments 40 percent of the
farms in the survey would have logged negative incomes in the last six
consecutive years.
Items Four and Five: If the already put-in-place 2009 federal estate tax
exemption of $3.5 million was the law in 2000, only 65 farms nationwide would
have paid any estate taxes that year, according to the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office. Using the same 2000 IRS data for 2006, when the
exception rises to $2 million, only 124 farm estates across the country would
have paid taxes.
According to an Aug. 31 survey by the Illinois Society of Professional Farm
Managers and Rural Appraisers, 56 percent of all land buyers in the state during
the first six months of 2005 used 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchanges to avoid federal
capital gains taxes while pushing land prices to over $5,000 an acre in many
prime farmland areas.
As such, why aren’t farm groups—and their expensive lobbyists—fighting for tax
changes to drain the 1031 price pressure that affects every working farmer and
rancher as hard as they are for estate tax changes that affects only a handful?
Alan Guebert is a freelance agricultural journalist. He can be reached at
agcomm@sbcglobal.net or at 21673 Lago Dr., Delavan, IL 61734.
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MIT Technology Review, MA
01/05/06
Plant Power
First mass-production of ethanol from corn waste planned
By Corie Lok
While ethanol made from fermented corn grain can boost the octane and reduce
the tailpipe emissions of gasoline, its expensive, costing about five cents a liter
more than gas. A Canadian biotech company, however, says that next year it will
begin building the worlds first facility to mass-produce ethanol, not just from
grain, but from a far more abundant source: agricultural waste, such as
cornstalks, cobs, and leaves. That could help bring ethanols price closer to that
of gasoline.
Iogen of Ottawa, Ontario, uses enzymes made by a genetically engineered
fungus to convert cellulose in the corn waste to sugars, which are then fermented
to make ethanol. Three sites in the United States, Canada, and Germany have
been proposed for the new plant, which will produce about 200 million liters a
yeara capacity similar to that of the largest existing ethanol plantsand should be
operational by 2007, says Jeff Passmore, executive vice president of Iogen. A
$54 million investment by Shell and Petro-Canada is making it possible.
Whether Iogen can actually reduce the cost of ethanol wont be clear until the
factory is up and running, says Robert Anex, an agricultural engineer at Iowa
State University. But what is clear is that using all of the waste from U.S. corn
could theoretically increase the U.S. ethanol supply from about 11 billion liters a
year to 95 billion liters, which is more than enough to blend with all U.S. gasoline
at the current common proportion of up to 10 percent, says Charles Wyman, a
chemical engineering professor at Dartmouth College.
If Iogen succeeds, the chemical that gives zip to beer could help a lot more cars
run cleaner.
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Philly.com
01/09/06
A fresh idea for USDA
Federal food programs would benefit from buying locally.
By Charles M. Kuperus
The various feeding programs under the auspices of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service would do well to follow a simple mantra:
When able, buy locally first and regionally second - and nationally or
internationally only as a last resort.
With fuel costs escalating, it just makes sense for programs like the Emergency
Food Assistance Program and the Food Stamp Program to encourage the
shortest line between consumer and producer. The Senior Farmers Market
Nutrition Program, directed by the Food and Nutrition Service, already makes the
most of this principle.
Today's reality dictates that we make the most of our resources while trying to do
even more to help Americans eat healthier. Shrinking the radius from which
those foods come is one way to reduce the costs without reducing the benefit.
Recently, the Food and Nutrition Service invited those involved in public nutrition
to comment on its programs. New Jersey's message of buying locally first was
well-received during the session, which will help federal officials craft the 2007
Farm Bill.
Buying locally has become well-established in the general food-buying scheme
as well. Time and again, consumers have shown a preference for buying fruits,
vegetables, and other agricultural products that come from as close to their
homes as possible. Locally grown or state brands such as "Jersey Fresh" have
become as much a staple of supermarket advertising as double coupons.
One of the best examples of shortening the chain from farm to consumer is the
Community Farmers Market. Like many other states, New Jersey has seen
dramatic growth in Community Farmers Market programs. Some in South Jersey
- Collingswood and Woodbury come to mind - have become very successful and
feature an array of farmers taking their products directly to shoppers. In 2000,
there were about 45 Community Farmers Markets in New Jersey. Today, there
are nearly 80.
This concept easily transfers to federal food programs, especially the Senior
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Farmers Market Nutrition Program. Under this program, participants older than
60 who meet income guidelines receive vouchers for fresh fruits and vegetables
at farmers markets. In 2005, Gloucester County gave out 3,500 vouchers,
Camden County 1,500, and Burlington County 500. (To see if you qualify, visit
www.state.nj.us/agriculture/markets/wic.htm.)
The annual limit for these senior recipients is $20, though a USDA proposal
would raise that to $50. This shows how buying locally can stretch the federal
food dollar. Instead of buying large quantities of commodities on a national scale
and then trucking them all over the country, this program links residents with
local farmers, keeping transportation costs to a minimum and strengthening the
connection between producer and consumer.
This program also helps hold down health-care costs. The link between eating a
healthy diet, including more fruits and vegetables, is undeniable. Eating more of
these nutritious foods will help make these residents healthier, reducing medical
costs, which typically increase with age.
Another area of potential savings across a variety of programs is in the costs of
transporting commodities to distributors. "Food miles" are receiving more and
more attention these days. This concept refers to the distance food is moved
from its origin to a market. With fuel costs high, reducing food miles is essential
in reining in the cost of getting food from farm to table.
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University
researched food miles for 16 fruits and vegetables. It found that 16 Iowa-grown
crops traveled a total of 716 miles to get to market, compared with 25,301 miles
for the same products bought from out of state. The difference in mileage, at
today's gasoline and diesel costs, is substantial and underscores the value of
buying locally first.
By keeping the cost of food miles low through a "buy locally first" approach, many
of the federal programs - from the Emergency Food Assistance Program to the
Commodity Supplemental Food Program - would be able to reach even more
recipients and increase food-buy dollars through the reduced transportation
costs.
Charles M. Kuperus is the New Jersey secretary of agriculture. Also ran in:
FreshPlaza, Netherlands
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Pork Net
01/09/06
Ag Briefs
4. NSIF Honors Two from Iowa State
A faculty member and a graduate student from Iowa State University's (ISU)
animal science department were honored earlier at the National Swine
Improvement Federation's annual meeting. Max F. Rothschild, Charles F.
Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture, received the Charles
Stanislaw Memorial Distinguished Service Award. The distinguished service
award honors individuals for their record of distinguished service to the pork
industry through involvement in implementing, supervising and/or participating in
performance testing programs. Rothschild is considered one of the world's
foremost animal geneticists, as evidence through his unique and highly
productive pig genome research, especially in the application of molecular
genetics and immunogenetics to swine breeding.
Clint Schwab received the Lauren Christian Memorial Graduate Student Award.
The graduate student award recognizes a graduate student conducting research
in the area of swine genetics, meats, nutrition or other disciplines that might have
a swine genetic component. The award recipient may be rewarded for
commitment to sound genetic principles or for the discovery of new concepts in
the field of genetics and/or performance testing. Schwab currently is a lecturer
and research assistant in animal science, and also serves as coach for the ISU
Livestock Judging Team.
3. Zaabel Joins Pork Board as Swine Health Director
Dr. Pamela Zaabel has joined the National Pork Board as director of Swine
Health Information and Research. Zaabel graduated as a doctor of veterinary
medicine from Iowa State University in 1997. She has worked as a practicing
veterinarian with experience in swine medicine and production at a mixed-animal
veterinary clinic in Newton, Iowa until 2004. Zaabel and her husband raise
sheep and cattle near Newton. While obtaining her veterinary degree, Zaabel
worked at Iowa State University’s Department of Veterinary Pathology and
Veterinary Medical Research Institute’s laboratories and taught in the
Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology. Zaabel’s
responsibilities for the Pork Checkoff will include coordinating the Checkoff’s
PRRS Initiative, coordinating research and research programs in other endemic
and emerging swine diseases and developing educational material for producers.
4. Larsen Joins Pork Board as Safety Director
Steve Larsen has joined the National Pork Board to fill the position of director of
pork safety. Until recently, Larsen worked as senior food technologist for Tyson
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Foods Inc., where he was part of the company’s food safety and Salmonella task
forces. Larsen also participated in research and projects studying product shelflife and food safety. Larsen is a graduate of Iowa State University where he
completed his bachelor’s degree in animal science, a master’s degree in meat
science and a doctorate of philosophy in veterinary microbiology.
5. Wintersteen to Lead ISU’s College of Agriculture
Wendy Wintersteen, interim dean of Iowa State's College of Agriculture and
interim director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station
since August 2005, will permanently serve in these positions effective Jan. 1,
2006. Wintersteen succeeds Catherine Woteki, who left ISU last July to become
global director of scientific affairs for Mars Inc., McLean, Va. Prior to becoming
interim dean, Wintersteen was senior associate dean of the college and
associate director of the experiment station from 2000 to 2005. In other ISU
positions (1979 to 2000), Wintersteen was entomology professor; director of
extension to agriculture and natural resources; coordinator of pesticide
management and pesticide applicator training programs; and extension associate
in the entomology department and two extension area offices. From 1989 to
1990, Wintersteen also was acting national pesticide education program leader
for the USDA-Extension Service in Washington, D.C. Wintersteen earned a
bachelor of science degree in crop protection (1978) from Kansas State
University, Manhattan; and a doctorate in entomology (1988) from Iowa State.
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Quad City Times, IA
01/08/06
Lobbying scandal fallout felt in area
By Ed Tibbetts
At 7:15 a.m. the day after Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to a
second set of corruption and conspiracy charges, Brian Kennedy sent an e-mail
containing his two-page plan to “clean up Congress.”
A Republican candidate for the U.S. House in Iowa’s 1st District, Kennedy
proposed banning lobbyist contributions to congressional campaigns and political
fundraising in the nation’s capital.
Even before the Abramoff pleas, corruption promised to be an issue in the
midterm congressional elections. Democrats, sensing an advantage, are poised
to drive it home, and polls show the public’s already low opinion of Congress is
dwindling.
It still is too early to know whether Democrats can capitalize on the scandals
rocking Washington, D.C., or whether it becomes a stew in which both sides are
blamed. What is clear is that candidates in the 1st District are staking out
positions on what should be done and, among Republicans anyway, they’re
using the issue to distinguish themselves from their rivals.
Kennedy, a lobbyist himself who now lives in Bettendorf, concedes he is not the
perfect messenger for reform, noting that he, too, has made donations to
lawmakers he’s lobbied. In fact, he worked until late last year for DCI Group,
which ranks among the top lobbying firms in terms of campaign donations. Its
members gave more than $300,000 in donations during the 2004 election cycle,
according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Still, Kennedy said he has worked in the halls of Congress and therefore can talk
credibly about the issue. His client list includes universities and municipalities,
according to Senate records. He also has had corporate clients, the records
state.
“You talk to most lobbyists, they would welcome the change,” he said. “I want to
reform Washington, D.C.”
Kennedy’s rivals say his plan is more about trying to inoculate himself from a
culture that many outsiders, Republicans and Democrats alike, say is corrupt.
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“It sounds to me like a D.C. lobbyist who is running from his profession,” Iowa
Rep. Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, said.
Dix said greater disclosure, not necessarily new laws, is the best answer. “We
have laws on the books,” he said, adding they should be enforced.
Meanwhile, Mike Whalen, the chairman of Heart of America Restaurants & Inns,
whose campaign has emphasized he’s a common-sense businessman with
meat-and-potato ideas from the heartland, said a potential answer comes straight
from Iowa where state legislators cannot take gifts valued at more than $3. “I
think the rule for Iowa is a good rule for Washington, D.C.,” he added.
The Republicans do share common ground in saying their party is not solely to
blame for what is happening. They note that Abramoff’s clients and associates
gave to Democrats, too.
“I think it’s a problem with the culture of Washington. I don’t think it’s a problem
with one party or another,” Whalen said.
Democratic leaders scoff at that. They say Republicans are merely trying to
muddy the waters, noting Abramoff’s ties to indicted former House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, as well as the resignation of U.S. Rep. Randy
“Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., for taking bribes in a separate matter. “Clearly, this
culture of corruption has been coming from the Republican side,” said Jennifer
Psaki, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“I’ve said for a long time there’s this unholy alliance between corporate America
and wealthy individuals and politicians that has to be broken,” Democratic
congressional candidate Bill Gluba of Davenport said last week. “This is just the
tip of the iceberg.”
Gluba proposes that, once elected, legislators be prohibited from soliciting
anything of value, including campaign contributions.
Public money would pay for an incumbent’s campaign, he said, but only up to 85
percent of what a challenger raises. An incumbent would get less money than a
challenger because a challenger has the cost of fundraising in the private sector,
Gluba explained.
Bruce Braley, a Waterloo lawyer, says lobbyist-sponsored travel should be
banned, enforcement beefed up and, eventually, the country should move toward
publicly financing campaigns. He said voters are paying a lot of attention to
what’s going on. “It’s just one more thing to frustrate voters,” he said.
Rick Dickinson, an ex-state legislator and economic development official from
Sabula, said there should be a way to encourage, even require, candidates to
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raise money from their home district. And he, too, said public financing should be
part of the answer someday. “There’s a culture of corruption that everybody
ought to be concerned with,” he said, but he also noted that voters are not as
worried about the scandals as they are about health care and the economy.
It may be difficult for Democrats to drive the corruption issue home in a district
where there are no incumbents, said Steffen Schmidt, a political science
professor at Iowa State University. In fact, he believes the impact of the
Abramoff scandal will likely be confined to lawmakers who are caught up in the
investigation.
At the same time, Democrats lost their majority in Congress in 1994 on the heels
of controversy — notably the House banking scandal, which Republicans said
was indicative of a party in control for too long.
To some extent, Republicans who have had their hands on the levers of
government for the better part of a decade recognize the threat.
In taking his plan around the district last week, Kennedy toted a paper bag with
him. It was a reference to the time in 1991 when U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa,
now a candidate for governor, put a bag over his head on the floor of Congress
to protest the banking scandal. “I don’t want to find myself the second
congressman from eastern Iowa who has to put a bag over his head on the floor
of the Congress,” he said
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Radio Iowa
01/09/06
Students send old textbooks overseas
by Matt Kelley
Students at two of Iowa's state universities spent part of the weekend gathering
and crating up thousands of donated textbooks to send overseas. Craig Buske,
a junior at Iowa State University, is helping spearhead the movement for an
Iowa-based non-profit group called Pages of Promise.
Buske says the textbooks go to schools and universities in sub-Saharan areas of
Africa that lack education infrastructure, where some schools have no textbooks
at all or perhaps one to share with an entire class. Book drives were held over
the weekend at I-S-U and at the University of Northern Iowa, with plans to add
the University of Iowa next year. He says the phrase "One person's trash is
another person's treasure" truly applies here.
Buske says American publishers put out new editions of textbooks every few
years so the information isn't really outdated and the books are still of great value
in poor nations. The effort he and other I-S-U students started in the spring of
2003 has brought in nearly 100-thousand textbooks. This weekend, another tenthousand books were boxed for shipment.
Buske, a Johnston native, says the books come from publishers, community
colleges and book stores but the majority come from students. Buske says the
deflated refund is getting worse for college students, who may buy a book for a
hundred-dollars and then the book store will offer to buy it back for maybe sixdollars at semester's end. When the return is that small, he says it's easy to
convince students to donate the books as they'll have much more value to
someone else.
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Sioux Falls Argus Leader, SD
01/11/06
Pop. 144,600 - and booming
January estimate means Sioux Falls has doubled since 1970
JON WALKER
jwalker@argusleader.com
Sioux Falls' population has swelled to 144,600 as the city basks in the benefits of
a humming economy, safe neighborhoods and a growth pattern that seems to
feed on itself.
The new total, released Tuesday, shows a 2.5 percent hike the past 12 months
and sustains a trend in which South Dakota's largest city has doubled in size the
past 35 years. It will double again in the next 35 years, if City Hall projections
hold true.
The city gained 10 people a day in 2005, such as Tara Friez, 27, an interior
designer for Architecture Inc. who moved here from Houston when her husband,
Matt, joined the residency program at Sioux Valley Hospital.
"It's just a nice place to live," she said.
Jobs in medicine, education and finance create a need for houses, and the
resulting construction boom has fueled a demand for retail, restaurants and other
services.
"As long as industry comes, we're going to need more housing," said Alan
Amdahl, 48, a construction company owner who also remembers leaner days in
the early 1980s.
Tim Borich, associate professor of community regional planning at Iowa
State University, said Sioux Falls has become a regional growth center in the
Upper Midwest, though not on par with the Twin Cities or suburbs near Chicago.
"Location is a battle Sioux Falls deals with" for reasons more than climate, he
said.
The city is not on a major waterway or rail line and does not feed off larger metro
areas. Those details make the growth all the more remarkable, said Borich, a
1971 graduate of O'Gorman High School.
The downside is that medical and retail consolidation pumps Sioux Falls but also
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siphons the cream off economies of smaller towns trying to survive, he said.
The numbers from previous studies do in fact show Sioux Falls growing faster, by
percentage, than its own metro area and the state as a whole. About one-third of
newcomers here are from six nearby counties, one-third from a three-state area,
and one-third from across the country, said Jeffrey Schmitt, assistant city
planner.
Dan Scott, president of the Sioux Falls Area Development Foundation, said his
agency has helped other towns build their economies, but he doesn't think that
issue relates to Sioux Falls' effort to attract new businesses.
"If a town is going to dry up, it's going to dry up whether we provide opportunities
or not," Scott said.
A bigger issue is work force, the priority concern whenever employers show an
interest in moving here, Scott said. Unemployment is 3.3 percent - below state
and national rates - raising questions of an adequate labor pool.
"That's the number one thing on everybody's mind," he said. The work force is far
more than adequate, he said, because medical, education and retail services
continue to cause people to move here, increasing the labor pool and sustaining
the cycle that builds the economy.
"The positive here is that people here want to work," Scott said.
Sioux Falls scores well among newcomers for its park system - the city's top
asset, Friez said. And it ticks low on any study of crime rates in part because of a
mind-set that small news is big news. "People have a tendency to pay attention
to their neighborhoods. They don't ignore problems," said assistant police chief
Patti Lyon.
Schmitt said a 200,000 population - probably about the year 2020 - might strike
some potential newcomers as too big for Sioux Falls. But even hitting 301,000 in
2040, as he projects, won't change the city's identity.
"We're still not Omaha," Schmitt said. "We're never going to be Minneapolis. In
40 years, we'll be a big Sioux Falls."
Reach reporter Jon Walker at 331-2206 or 800-530-6397.
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The Dickinson Press, ND
01/01/06
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The Hindu, Hindu, India
01/10/06
Farmers should be made aware of benefits of
BT: Minister
Special Correspondent
`Biotechnology can help reduce nutritional deficiencies among
the poor'
BANGALORE: The controversies and misgivings about Bt cotton and
biotechnology are on account of the failure to provide information about their
benefits to farmers, Minister for Agriculture K. Srinivasa Gowda said on Monday.
Inaugurating a three-day international conference on "Biotechnology approaches
for alleviating malnutrition" at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS, GKVK
campus) here, the Minister said awareness of the benefits of biotechnology (BT)
should be created among farmers.
Mr. Srinivasa Gowda said that in spite of remarkable accomplishments of the
Green Revolution, there is a high level of malnutrition. Twenty-six per cent of
farmers and 45 per cent of agricultural labourers suffer from deficiencies,
including that of protein. Women and children are vulnerable to nutrientdeficiency disorders. Consumption data on cereals provide disturbing trends in
food and nutrition security during 1990s. The per capita energy and protein
intake declined sharply in the 1990s following a cut in subsidies and introduction
of economic reforms. Calorie intake declined from 2,423 in 1988 to 2,277 in
2000, he said.
There is a need for improving the nutrient quality of the largely vegetarian diet of
people in villages, the Minister said. BT has potential to reduce nutritional
deficiencies among the poor.
Adoption of BT requires an understanding of benefits and potential risks by
educators, policy makers and farmers, he added.
On the partnership between Purdue University of the U.S. and the University of
Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, he said its main purpose should be to make
people in villages aware of the potential of BT to improve nutritional levels. M.N.
Sheelavantar, UAS Vice-Chancellor, said the conference is being conducted
under the higher education partnership between Purdue University and the UAS.
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V. Prakash, Director, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore,
said the level of nutrition among students has increased after the introduction of
the midday meal scheme.
Randy Woodson, Dean, Purdue University, and Wendy Wintersteen, Dean,
Iowa State University, spoke.
The police maintained tight security on the campus.
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Times Online, UK
01/08/06
Gory games that can warp your brain
By Sam Lister
The links between computer images of brutality and the real
thing may go further than first thought
VIOLENT computer games trigger a mechanism in the brain that makes people
more likely to behave aggressively, research suggests.
A study of the effects of popular games such as Doom, Mortal Kombat and
Grand Theft Auto, which involve brutal killings, high-powered weaponry and
street crime, indicates that avid users become desensitised to shocking acts of
aggression. Psychologists found that this brain alteration, in turn, appeared to
prime regular users of such games to act more violently.
Many studies have concluded that people who play violent games are more
aggressive, more likely to commit violent crimes, and less likely to help others.
But critics argue that these correlations prove only that violent people gravitate
towards violent games, not that games can change behaviour.
However, the new research, carried out by scientists at the University of
Missouri-Columbia, goes some way towards demonstrating a causal link
between computer games and violence, rather than a simple association. When
shown images of real-life violence, people who played violent video games were
found to have a diminished brain response. However, the same group had more
natural reactions to other emotionally disturbing images, such as those of dead
animals or ill children.
The researchers, led by Bruce Bartholow, a psychologist at Missouri-Columbia,
found that the particular reduction in response associated with violence was
correlated with aggressive behaviour. A type of brain activity called the P300
response, which reflects the emotional impact of an image on the viewer, was
measured in 39 experienced gamers.
The participants were shown a variety of real-life images interspersed with
violent scenes and other non-violent negative images. In subjects with the most
experience of violent games, the P300 response to the violent images was
smaller, and delayed. “People who play a lot of violent video games didn’t see
them as much different from neutral (images),” Dr Bartholow said.
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While such de-sensitivity is well documented and has resulted in the use of
video games to prepare soldiers for scenes of war, researchers detected more
alarming trends. When the game players were then given the opportunity to
“punish” a pretend opponent in another game, those with the greatest reduction
in P300 brain responses meted out the most severe punishments.
According to an early report of the study, published on newscientist.com, the
website of the scientific journal, even when the team took into account the
subjects’ natural hostility, the games experience and P300 response were still
strongly correlated with aggressiveness.
Many shocking crimes, mostly committed by teenagers, have been linked to
violent video games in recent years. In 1999, two high-school students shot dead
13 people and wounded 23 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. In
2002, a German teenager murdered 16 people as he walked through Gutenberg
school in Erfurt brandishing a shotgun. Both incidents were later linked to violent
video games: the American teenagers had enjoyed playing Doom, while the
German youth was reported to have spent hours playing particularly brutal
computer games.
In 2004, the game Manhunt was blamed by parents of a boy murdered in Britain
for contributing to his death. Police found no direct links to the game, although
some retailers removed it from their shelves.
Other psychologists said that Dr Bartholow’s findings, due to be published this
year in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, offered further evidence
of a worrying trend. Craig Anderson, of the Department of Psychology at
Iowa State University, said: “These brain studies corroborate the many
behavioural and cognitive studies showing that violent video games lead to
increases in aggression.”
Some critics remain unconvinced by the findings, however. Jonathan Freedman,
Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, who has prepared several
government reports on media and games violence, said that all people
“habituate” to any kind of stimulus. “All we are really getting is de-sensitisation to
images,” he said. “There’s no way to show that this relates to real-life
aggression.”
SO VIOLENT, IT’S ALMOST REAL
Last year’s most violent games, as assessed by the US watchdog Family Media
Guide, included:
Resident Evil 4: Player is a special forces agent who is sent to rescue the
President’s kidnapped daughter. Images include a woman pinned to a wall by
a pitchfork through her face
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50 Cent: Bulletproof Loosely based on the gangster lifestyle of the rapper.
Player engages in shootouts and loots the bodies of victims to buy 50 Cent
recordings and music videos
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Player is a criminal on a mission of murder,
theft and destruction. Health is improved by visiting prostitutes, with bonuses
for killing them
God of War: A warrior hunts the gods who tricked him into killing his family.
Prisoners are burnt alive, victims torn in half. Also ran in: Earthtimes.org
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Wisconsin Ag Connection
01/11/06
National Ag Electric Seminar to be Held in
Wisconsin
An electrical code seminar for utility employees, electricians, builders, farm
operators and agricultural advisers will be held February 15 in La Crosse. The
seminar is being sponsored Iowa State University MWPS and the Midwest
Rural Energy Council.
The seminar will focus on aspects of the 2005 National Electric Code for
agricultural buildings. The featured speaker is LaVerne Stetson, co-author and
technical editor of the revised "Wiring Handbook for Rural Facilities."
The forum precedes the 44th Annual Rural Energy Conference, which is
scheduled for February 16-17 at the same location. The conference topics
include transmission and distribution technology, stray voltage testing and energy
efficiency.
For more information or to register, call 608-263-1672.
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