Don’t waste valuable agricultural land

How often have you heard someone say, 'We Iowans should count our blessings.” If we actually took the time to do that, we could all come up with a lengthy list: Clean air, good schools, wide variety of weather would just be a few.

Perhaps the biggest blessing of all is such a common sight that many of us take it for granted and don't comprehend how big it really is. That blessing, of course, is the resource of our agricultural land.

As I sit at my kitchen window and drink my morning coffee I look at what I know to be some of the best agricultural land in the United States. If I spend much time at all watching the evening news, it becomes clear that we Iowans manage some of the very best agricultural land in the entire world.

That is why I become saddened when I see our elected officials support projects that don't use our resources properly. The project I am talking about is the Prospect Meadows baseball field development along Highway 13, north of Cedar Rapids. The elected officials I am talking about are the Linn County Supervisors. The supervisors have opted to use public money to convert some of the best agricultural land in the world into baseball diamonds.

It is not difficult for me to believe, with a little work by both the Prospect Meadows developers and the supervisors, that some Cedar River bottom land with little agricultural value could be developed into those same baseball fields. Cedar Rapids would realize the same economic benefits whether the diamonds are on river bottom land or the best crop land in the world.

The land on Highway 13 is currently being used to feed the world; shouldn't it continue to be used that way?

We expect our elected officials in Washington and Des Moines to make wise decisions about the use of our resources. Shouldn't we expect the same stewardship from our local supervisors?

' Neal Baty of Coggon is a community representative to The Gazette's editorial board. Comments: nwbjab@q.com