Candidates Are Skipping Traditionally Mighty Farm Issues in Iowa

by Scott Canon (Kansas City Star) ... The discussion of ethanol policy puts conservatives in an awkward spot --- ...Yet even in Iowa this year, Grain Belt concerns now draw less attention than in the past. That could mean that expansion of the Corning plant to include cellulosic ethanol production — adding corn cobs and stalks to the alcohol-making process — might never happen.

“Without assurances of a market for that fuel, it’s hard to get the investment” for something that could put more ethanol on the market, said plant manager Greg Olsen.

But polls show Iowans developing a taste for free-market talk — undercutting government’s role in making kernels a threat to crude.

As the state nears its Feb. 1 caucuses, two of three candidates who’ve captured Iowa’s favor, Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz, get lousy ratings from the ethanol crowd. Donald Trump leads the pack and has won high marks from the industry, but no one contends that corn made the New York mogul a frontrunner.

In a state of 3.1 million people, just 66,000 operate farms. Agriculture trails manufacturing, finance, government, health care and real estate in contributing to the state’s economic output.

But Strawn (Matt Strawn, the former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party) and others say the relative health of the Midwestern farm economy in recent years also nudges out of the political debate.

“We’re making the candidates pay attention,” said Eric Branstad, son of the Iowa governor and state director for the ethanol-promoting group America’s Renewable Future. “They’re learning.”

The group recently launched a series of ads attacking Cruz for failure to support the Renewable Fuel Standard. And Branstad cited how candidate Mike Huckabee wrote recently in The Des Moines Register that “Washington is at war with farmers” over ethanol.

Some political operatives say the very need for such a campaign actually shows that the still-formidable influence of farming interests in the state is waning.

Campaigns recognize that signing up with Team Ethanol can cost them contributions from Big Oil, he said. They also know that the campaign beyond Iowa, especially for Republicans, won’t be so friendly to someone who endorses a big government role in shaping markets.

And, he (Neil Harl, an economist emeritus at Iowa State University) said, they probably recognize that fewer farmers are left to turn an election.

“If they can avoid getting involved in agricultural policy,” he said, “they have.” READ MORE and MORE (The Guardian)