Program eliminates small, family farms

Why would someone sell his or her family farm at an auction that appears to be set up to favor a particular buyer and not the family or estate?

Some years ago, Iowa passed a law preventing the Iowa Department of Natural Resources from paying more than fair market value for land. Since that time, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, a private, non-profit organization, has repeatedly stepped in to purchase the land on the DNR's behalf.

If this continues, we will have no more family farms or funding for rural churches or schools. If the bulk of northeast Iowa is all federal land, there will be less and less of a need for county government.

Research shows that the more farm programs you have in an area, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the more depressed an area is.

I believe this land-purchase program was initiated by the DNR around 30 years ago, and has yielded the following results: Elimination of many small, family farms, making more room for Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and keeping this area economically depressed.

The opportunity for this agency to buy the land often hinges on the ignorance or greed of one or two people. When are the people of this state going to wake up?

John J. Blake

Dorchester