During Midwest visit, Biden promotes Iowa biofuels, agricultural utilities

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced more than $5 billion in renewable energy, land conservation and rural broadband and utility projects, including more than $400 million for projects in Iowa.

“When rural America does well, when Indian country does well, we all do well,” Biden said, speaking in an engine room next to a green tractor and in front of a large American flag in rural Northfield, Minn.

Biden and senior administration officials plan to “hit” rural America in the next two weeks to argue how the federal investments the White House is supporting – through the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed in 2021 and the Reduction Act of last year's inflation – help rural areas and farmers.

For example, Veterans Affairs Secretary Dennis McDonough plans to visit the Iowa City VA Medical Center on Thursday to discuss access to medical care for veterans in rural areas. McDonough will visit both VA and community facilities, according to a media advisory.

Administration officials will point out that federal spending has created new revenue streams for farmers, strengthened rural economic development and conservation practices, reduced energy costs and created new job opportunities for farm families.

The president said Wednesday that factories have closed in rural America, cities have emptied and jobs have moved overseas.

“Over the past few decades, these communities have lost more than jobs,” Biden said. “They've lost a sense of dignity, of opportunity, of pride. My plan is to invest in rural America. It's about something else, too. It's about restoring pride and a path to rural communities that have been left behind for too long Cairo.”

Biden's visit to Minnesota comes after Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips announced a major challenge to the president last week.

On his first full day of campaigning, Phillips, 54, told reporters that former President Donald Trump is “a disaster for our country” and shared strongly that “the polling shows that President Biden is not going to win the next elections”.

Agricultural aid

The goal of the federal aid is to show that Americans in rural communities don't have to move away in search of economic opportunity, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, told reporters during a White House press conference on Tuesday before the Biden meeting. visit.

“And I think it reflects President Biden's belief that your zip code shouldn't determine your financial future,” Vilsack said.

The $5 billion in investments announced by Biden — money already committed — includes nearly $1.7 billion for farmers, ranchers and forest owners to participate in voluntary conservation programs and adopt environmentally friendly agricultural practices, including growing crops that naturally sequester carbon and improve soil quality. creating buffers to protect nearby waterways from pollution.

Vilsack said the $1.7 billion doubles what was spent on the same types of programs in the most recent fiscal year and “will create new income opportunities for thousands of small and medium-sized agricultural operations as they sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Another $1.1 billion will go toward upgrading infrastructure in rural communities to provide clean drinking water and reliable energy, and to expand access to higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel.

Iowa specific investments include:

“This is an example of the president rebuilding the middle class in rural America, from the bottom up and from the middle out,” Vilsack said.

Vilsack told reporters that Minnesota was chosen to begin the administration's farm spending boost because of efforts already underway there.

“Minnesota was one of the first states to embrace a clean water initiative, for example,” Vilsack said. “And so I think there's an opportunity to highlight Minnesota's work. I think it's also fair to say that Minnesota understands and appreciates that the future is in biofuels and the need to continue to look for ways to expand the use of and access to higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel.”

Biden's trip also comes against a backdrop of Republican presidential candidates criss-crossing Iowa and covering Iowa and other states with large rural populations in campaign ads denouncing Biden's multitrillion-dollar agenda as exacerbating inflation by flooding the economy with government subsidies. spending — the grocery aisle weighing on family budgets — and that his clean energy policies are to blame for high gas prices.

Regarding farmers and ranchers, Congress missed a September deadline to reauthorize the highly influential farm bill.

“I appreciate that he recognizes that rural America needs help with funding to either create or maintain revenue streams or livelihoods,” said Dan Glessing, a Waverly, Minn., farmer and president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau. “We need options.”

He called for more attention to be paid to intensifying trade disputes, particularly over Canada's quotas on US dairy products and with Mexico on genetically modified corn. He also wants to see the country's temporary agricultural visa program improved, noting that many farms rely on foreign workers for labor.

“We have to separate the guest worker program from the border issue,” Glessing said. “H2A workers come from all over.”

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune contributed to this report.

doremarks: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com