Zach Lahn (like “LANE”), the Republican candidate for governor, says he isn’t calling for a ban on certain farm chemicals, but he says the E-P-A is not telling the truth about the safety of some products.
Lahn has opposed efforts to provide legal immunity to Bayer, which markets glyphosate under the brand name Round Up — if the company’s labels about proper usage follow E-P-A guidelines.
In February, President Trump issued an executive order declaring glyphosate as a critical part of the food supply, a move that could provide a legal defense to Round Up’s manufacturer as it faces hundreds of lawsuits. Lahn made a three-stop swing through southwest Iowa Tuesday, including a town hall last (Tuesday) night in Silver City focused on ag issues. Lahn is an advocate of what’s called regenerative agriculture, which involves things like planting cover crops in the fall on harvested fields and adding oats and hay to the spring planting rotation so the same field isn’t used just for corn or soybeans.
Lahn says he’d repurpose state incentives currently targeted for row crop farming — and make state economic development grants available to farmers who’d shift to raising livestock, other crops or food for human consumption.
Lahn suggests some state grants could be awarded for new fencing and G-P-S collars for cattle to manage rotating the animals around pastures.
