A crowd of about 15 people attended a meet and greet for a candidate running for a state office.

Democrat John Norwood is looking to unseat Republican incumbent Mike Naig for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. His main platform is “Iowa Built to Last” and he has three areas in which he feels needs to be corrected for that to happen, and those include water quality, soil loss and rejuvenating rural communities. 

Norwood believes that if farmers use more cover crops, rotate them and no-till practices that could re-introduce biology into the soil which would help slow down the loss of the richest soil on earth that is in Iowa. He also thinks that if farmers would grow a third crop in addition to corn and soybeans that would help with diversification, but markets need to grow for that to happen. Norwood pointed out access to farmland is very small and therefore forces out individuals who won’t inherit from a family member or have the financial means to buy land.  

Norwood also talked about creating an Iowa-based farm bill that they could have more control over to help all levels of farmers, along with immigration reform to find farm workers and developing farm parks of 100 acres in each Iowa county to build a more diverse food supply.

Norwood described that he talks to everyone and isn’t blinded by what political party, or if any, people belong to.

“First of foremost we’re all Iowans and so I spend less time trying to figure is somebody a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent, and more about what are their concerns, what are they’re issues. Sometimes I see, I have Republican farmers hosting me in different parts of Iowa. I have Republican farmers contributing to the campaign and so forth, and I have people who self identify as non-party and they’re coming. They are curious, they have ideas, they have concerns and I think it’s addressing those as a candidate.      

Thursday’s campaign stop in Greene County was the 83rd Iowa county for his 99-county tour.