Trade wars, refinery waivers by the Environmental Protection Agency, and uncertain weather have some local producers worried about the upcoming harvest season.

Menlo farmer Ralph Lents serves as the District 7 Director on the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, a subset of the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA), and as Chair of the state Environmental Protection Commission. After the ICGA expressed their anger at the EPA’s approval of 31 small refinery waivers and its destruction of ethanol demand at their Annual Grassroots Summit last week, Lents gives his current outlook on the state’s agriculture industry, “Right now, we don’t have anything going in our favor. We need a win somewhere along in here. We need some trade issues passed, we need this refinery thing with the ethanol resolved. We’re still going to have to worry about the weather and the early frost and everything. So our outlook right now is about as low as it can be. It’s only got one way to go because it can’t get much lower, so I’m hoping things do improve later this fall.”

Lents adds a win he’s pushing for this fall is a ratification of the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement by Congress, which has been agreed upon by the three countries. Other priorities that were concluded at the Annual Grassroots Summit included maintaining a legislative funding stream for the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, obtaining funding for a renewable infrastructure cost-share program, retaining the Renewable Fuel Standard, and protecting or expanding the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development funding as part of the federal Farm Bill.