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Farm Aid Visits East Iowa
By Mitch Traphagen
Jun 26, 2008 - 9:28:28 PM

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Benton County Supervisor Ron Buch talks with Joel Morton of Farm Aid about crop damage in the county due to flooding. Mitch Traphagen Photo

MARENGO - Representatives from Farm Aid, an organization dedicated to helping family farmers, toured flooded farm fields in Iowa and Benton counties on Friday.  On Saturday, singer Willie Nelson, the public face of Farm Aid, provided an initial donation of $10,000 during an event in Tama.

Iowa County Supervisor Linda Yoder lead a group consisting of two representatives from Farm Aid, Joel Morton and Glenda Yoder, along with Christine Taliga and Ivy Sievers from Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development on a tour of flood damaged areas in the county.

The first stop ended at a washed-out gravel road west of Marengo.  Water over the road prevented further progress - the adjacent fields had become temporary lakes.  The next stop was to speak with Iowa County farmer Charlie Scott.

“Between 20 and 25,000 acres are underwater between Marengo and Belle Plaine,” Scott said.  “That's a lot of acreage to be underwater.”

From there, the tour stopped in Blairstown where Benton County Supervisor Ron Buch joined in.  The stops included fields of stunted corn and Buch’s own farm.

“This last week was all underwater,” Buch said.  “If you look out across this field, we have a lot of cornfields in Iowa and Benton counties that are yellow.”

Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, estimated the crop damage from flooding could approach $3 billion.  Northey went on to say that poor crops could put some of the state’s 90,000 family farmers out of business.

“Farm Aid is working now with local farm groups, churches, and rural organizations to get emergency funds out quickly to flooded farmers,” said organizer Willie Nelson.  “Today we made our first grant of $10,000 to a local Iowa farm organization to provide emergency assistance to farmers in need right now.”

The organization hopes to provide an additional $40,000 in donations.

“Farm Aid means there are people outside of this area that care about what happens to farmers,” said Linda Yoder.  “This is the top corn and bean producing area in the nation and they care enough to come out to see what is happening to our area - they care enough to do something.”

Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization based in Boston, Mass. with a mission to keep family farmers on their land.  For more information, visit their Website at www.farmaid.org.

Iowa County Supervisor Linda Yoder looks out over a flooded field while on a tour with Farm Aid. Mitch Traphagen Photo

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