Iowa’s rolling fields, stretching as far as the eye can see, have long embodied America’s agricultural prowess. For generations, the farmers of this Midwestern state have fed not just a nation but a significant portion of the world, their toil and ingenuity creating an agricultural superpower.
Yet today, these same farmers feel the very foundations of their way of life threatened by proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions to address a fabricated climate emergency.
Iowa farmers at a homeschooling conference my colleagues attended were well aware of widely publicized protests of European farmers against government moves to limit the use of fertilizers and the practice of animal husbandry. They fear copycat actions from a U.S. government that would impose impractical and unnecessary “solutions” for a nonexistent problem.
A John Deere employee said that transitioning to electric farm machinery — as proposed by the climate-obsessed — necessitates batteries so heavy that the equipment sinks into the soil or significantly compacts it. Moreover, these batteries limit operation to as little as four hours, making them useless for jobs requiring up to 16 hours.
If a heavy duty tractor is powered by a lithium-ion battery, “it’s twice the volume, twice the weight, twice the mass, and four times the cost,” said Deere Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman in an online interview.
Iowa’s Role in US Agriculture and Food Security
By the late 19th century, Iowa had already established itself as a major producer of corn, hogs and cattle. The introduction of hybrid corn in the 1930s further cemented Iowa’s position, leading to dramatic increases in yields and establishing the state as the nation’s corn capital.
Today, Iowa’s agricultural output is staggering: It leads the nation in corn production, typically accounting for about 17% of the U.S. total. It is the second-largest soybean producer in the country. With around 13 billion eggs per annum, Iowa ranks first in egg production. It is also a major producer of pork and beef.
Agriculture and related industries accounted for about 12% of Iowa’s gross domestic product in 2022, with agricultural output valued at over $46 billion. According to the Iowa Farm Bureau, agriculture and related businesses account for one out of every five jobs in the state. The ripple effect extends to equipment manufacturers, seed companies, transportation firms and local retailers.
Fossil Fuels Are the Backbone of Modern Agriculture
The green revolution of the mid-20th century, which dramatically increased agricultural productivity worldwide, was powered by fossil fuels and their derivatives. This revolution transformed farming from a labor-intensive endeavor into a highly mechanized and efficient industry capable of feeding billions.
In Iowa, fossil fuels permeate every aspect of agricultural production. Most fertilizers and pesticides are derived from fossil fuels. Nitrogen fertilizers, crucial for corn production, are manufactured using natural gas as a key ingredient. Machinery that has revolutionized farming is predominantly powered by diesel fuel. Many farms rely on pumps powered by diesel or electricity generated with fossil fuels to irrigate their fields.
This deep integration of fossil fuels into the agricultural process means that any policy aimed at drastically reducing CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels would have far-reaching consequences for farmers.
However, Iowa’s farmers can draw inspiration from recent events in Europe. Throughout 2022 and 2023, farmers across the European Union staged protests against various environmental regulations threatening their livelihoods, and electoral victories followed.
The farmers of Iowa and Europe are not just fighting for their own interests. They are standing up for a way of life, for the vitality of rural communities, and for the food security of millions. Their voice in this debate is essential.
This commentary was first published at BizPac Review on August 20, 2024.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University and an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, both in the U.K., and a B.S. in engineering from Anna University, India.
Peter Ready says
The blatant threat announced by the current Democratic candidate for President to steal patents must be exposed, dissected and publicized by the Cornwall Alliance. This is not just one of the many deceitful threats of the female pretender to the Oval Office. It is actually a core crowing of the Democrat Party’s 21st century American naked Bolshevic threats. They’re announcing they will steal, kill and destroy. Your quality investigations and skills are very important (esp. in agriculture) to help Americans understand and stand fast in truth. (Pete Ready peteready@reagan.com)
Herman A (Alex) Pope says
Natural climate change is due to changes in water.
If you establish a consensus that the primary factor that controls climate change in going in and out of ice ages is a trace gas and then promote every correlation, it is possible to come up with some charts that fool a lot of people, mostly those who profit from the lucrative green energy scams.
Water, in its abundance, water in its changing states, water, water vapor, clouds of water drops and ice crystals, rain and snowfall and sequestering of ice and flowing of sequestered ice and cooling by thawing and reflecting of ice is many orders of magnitude more effective in climate control than CO2.
CO2 is important in the growth of green plants and the efficiency of the use of water by green plants.
Most importantly, how much of their money comes from promoting green energy scams. Next, how much of their education came from universities that have most of their money coming from promotion of green energy scams.
The crux of the matter is the physics of it all. We watch the weather forecasts many times as we plan our activities. The weather forecasters never tell us tomorrow is going to be hot or cold or dry or wet because of the levels of CO2, they tell us that it is going to be hot or cold or dry or wet because of water in its changing states. Whatever influences weather, hour by hour, day by day, influences climate over years, decades, centuries, over thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, over millions of years, that major factor is water in its changing states, the balance of water in oceans compared to ice on land, the changing ocean currents, those major factors are water in its changing states.
The major difference between major or minor warmer times compared to colder times is location and the state of water, water and ice are in different locations and states. Colder and warmer, causing freezing and thawing of water, that by itself, does not change the locations.
To remove water from the oceans and put ice on land requires a lot of energy to power the evaporation and a lot of IR out to form the ice. Since the ice ages are mainly northern hemisphere events, the tropical energy comes from the sun and is carried by ocean currents into the Arctic. Deeper and warmer water in the Arctic Ocean promotes more ice sequestered on land and promotes longer and colder ice ages.
External forcing, Solar Energy in, and orbital factors are important, but internal parameters determine the internal response. External forcing, Solar Energy in, and orbital factors repeated the same sequences over the most recent fifty million years, yet, the internal responses evolved drastically.
What changed? Land blocked the flow of tropical currents and diverted them into the Polar Regions. Humans cool systems by routing energy from hot places to cold places and radiating the energy out. Humans cool systems by removing energy from water to form ice and then use the ice to cool things with the thawing ice.
Warm deep Arctic Ocean water promotes evaporation and snowfall and sequestering of ice, deep, in and around the Arctic and this works until there is too much ice. That ice spreads on land and is pushed into the Arctic where the ice in turbulent saltwater chills the water to cold enough to form sea ice and stop the evaporation. Ice spreads and cools by thawing and reflecting until the land ice is depleted and the process repeats. Mass of water and ice taking part in these cycles evolved, increasing over time, causing colder and longer cycles. In the recent millions of years, ice accumulated on Antarctic as each warmer time put more ice on Antarctic Land and some was retained.
Enough ice is on Antarctic now that the oceans cannot get deep and warm enough to put major ice on the northern continents. Without the water for major ice on northern land, major ice ages are no longer possible.
These natural, self-correcting, stable dynamic cycles, with huge changes to ocean levels and water and ice, are never considered in Climate Energy Balance, ice is “NOT” included on the classic energy balance chart that most all on the different sides of the debates use as the gold standard.
Cold times have a lot of ice spread over large areas of land and ocean, warm times have little ice spread over large areas of land and ocean, yet neither consensus or skeptic energy balance charts or theory include ice.
Every complex system, most simple systems, are analyzed by looking at external periodic and constant forcing and by looking at the internal components of the systems, including the mass of the components, the internal spring rates, the internal damping, the internal dynamics. The most complicated system that is studied is the climate system, yet the internal components and responses of the climate system are not even considered.
Climate Science, as practiced by the consensus and skeptic climate people can never be proper science without considering the dynamics of the natural internal dynamic responses.
Weather forecasts are all about water, how much water and where the water is.
Climate change is the long-term change in weather, changes in weather is about changes in water, climate change is due to the long-term changes in water.
Roy Comer says
Please consider…
If you’ll look up at the sky on a regular basis, you’ll notice stripes that often go from horizon-to-horizon, yet we’re being told that this is the result of FROZEN CONdensation trails caused by aircraft. But why are there so many days, depending on where you live, that there’s either NOT a plume in the sky to be seen, or a random checkerboard pattern that prevails?
This should appear to be confusing when considering that all of our pilots must either be grounded those days, or that water freezes in temperatures far above 32 degrees Fahrenheit… then lingers as it rolls out to form wispy ‘CIRRUS’ clouds (please search for CONtrails at > Brittanica.com).
And yet reality has proven that early ‘FAN’ jet engines of the 1950’s (till?) produced an estimated 1,000-foot trail (at extremely frigid high-altitudes) which then quickly dissipated and NEVER EVER ROLLED OUT! Yet we’re told that modern ‘TURBO-FAN’ jet engines, which RARELY EVER EMIT any water vapor, are causing all these trails that have changed our once deep blue skies into a gray haze that’s being accepted as normal?
OK… but may I ask, why do over 300 ‘Weather Control’ patents, which date back to the late 1800’s up to our present day, even exist? And what exactly do they entail if and/or when any number of them are deployed?
Could this be “An Elephant in Our Room that’s Hidden in PLANE Sight?”
Is it possible that we’re actually being CONned?… you decide.
Or should we all just sing “Que Sera, Sera” and not face the truth?
Please Watch ‘The Dimming’ @ > GeoEngineeringWatch.org
Hosea 4:6
Matthew 10:26
2 Corinthians 2:11
PS…
The original ‘Conspiracy Reality’ began back with Adam & Eve (FYI: NOT Adam & Steve nor Madam & Eve) and today’s title of ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ was conjured up by the CIA to make us all afraid to discuss VITAL TRUTH lest we be branded a ‘tinfoil-hat lunatic’! Sound familiar? SOOO WHAT!!!
We all MUST realize that any “GOOD” information being uncovered from “The Tree of The Knowledge of GOOD and EVIL” has the potential to be weaponized against us when CONTROLLED by those determined to kill, steal, and destroy… especially in this “age of exponential knowledge!”
… aka: ‘The Great Reset’? > StopWorldControl.com
The FEAR of God leads to freedom and peace.
The FEAR of man invites bondage and turmoil.
Believers in Christ’s indwelling power are called to resist evil and occupy.
Willful ignorance guarantees despair will ensue and won’t allow for bliss!
reginald t miller says
OH, so glad someone is putting this type of information out there. I have written down the name of these heros: Roy Comer, Hosea 4:6, Matthiew 12:26, 2 Corinthian 2:11, Herman A. Pope, Vijay Jayaraj, Jahey Hindman. These I will further research.
My college “education” prepared me to fall hook line and sinker for the CO2 Green Scam. It was a long process to rethink the whole CO2 propaganda of Al Gore et.al. If you’re like me, just starting to come around, and just needing information to help reeducate yourself, seeking more such information, don’t stop until you listen to the interviews with Dr Patrick Moore.
And of course, it was a big step for me to get off the greed for money and power, repent my foolish pride, study the works of Jesus Christ. Don’t forget that name: Jesus Christ! Look it up, it will heal you.