Where do Republican presidential candidates stand on agriculture?

DES MOINES — Campaigning in Iowa over the last year, Republican presidential candidates have made frequent appeals to the state's agriculture community and said they will prioritize farmers if elected president.

With Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses on Monday, here's what candidates have to say about how they would approach farm issues and agriculture.

Donald Trump

Campaigning in Iowa, former President Donald Trump often says his presidency was beneficial for farmers, pointing to the billions in subsidies given to farmers to compensate for losses incurred from tariff battles with China.

“Nobody has ever been better to Iowa and the farmers than Trump,” he said in a campaign rally in October.

During his presidency, Trump rolled back the controversial “Waters of the United States” regulation, which governs how the EPA can regulate waterways. Republicans and farm groups argue a broad interpretation of the Clean Water Act, as the rule looked under former President Barack Obama, over-regulates the ponds and streams on farmers’ properties and interferes with their work.

Trump says he will rescind other environmental regulations set by Biden’s EPA, which he says are a burden to farmers.

In 2019, the Trump administration approved the year-round sale of E15 — gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol. After oil companies sued the administration over the rule, a court struck it down in 2021.

“I fought for Iowa ethanol like no president in history,” he said at a July Farmers for Trump rally.

Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed moving the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Iowa in an effort to decentralize federal government personnel and offices out of Washington, D.C.

He said in a Des Moines Register op-ed column that he would rescind environmental regulations imposed on agriculture and “empower our farmers to make the most of our nation’s land.”

DeSantis has said he supports allowing the sale of E15 year round and would allow options for higher blends like E30. He has criticized President Joe Biden’s push to incentivize electric vehicle production as hurting American farmers and the ethanol industry.

While in Congress, DeSantis proposed and supported legislation to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil refineries to blend ethanol into gasoline. He has since said he favors keeping that standard in place.

Biofuels Vision 2024, a coalition supporting biofuel production, says DeSantis has agreed to its eight policy priorities, which includes allowing the year-round sale of E15, preserving ethanol tax credits and opposing electric vehicle mandates.

Also key to DeSantis’ agriculture policy is the promise to ban Chinese entities from buying land in the United States. In March, DeSantis signed a law banning China and other “countries of concern” from purchasing land in the Florida, and he says he will take similar action on the federal level.

DeSantis has wants to decouple the U.S. economy from China, which is a major importer of American agricultural goods.

DeSantis said in an interview with the Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau that the process should be done “strategically” and “methodically.” He said he would work to keep those markets open while also exploring new markets in Asia for America’s farmers.

“We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re dependent on China,” he said. “Selling things to people, fine, but being dependent on them is not in our national security interest.”

Nikki Haley

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has cast China as the foe of American agriculture, arguing that Chinese entities buying U.S. land is a threat to national security.

She has said she would block China from buying new land in the U.S. and take back the land that is already owned by Chinese entities.

In line with other candidates, Haley also opposes environmental regulations she says place a burden on farmers and wants to work with farmers voluntarily to solve water quality and other issues.

“When you look at family farms, especially that we’re losing, they can’t have any more regulation or pressure,” she said in an interview with the Sioux City Journal. “They’ll do what they need to to keep things safe. They want to do that. But I think the bureaucracy that’s come down on farmers has been way too excessive.”

Haley has called for repealing the federal gas tax, which she says adds to farmers’ expenses.

Like DeSantis, she has received a nod from the coalition of biofuels and agriculture groups for supporting their eight priority issues.

Haley also launched a “Farmers for Nikki” coalition in November, led by the former president of the American Soybean Association and Iowa Soybean Association.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy, an Ohio biotech entrepreneur, has made opposing carbon capture pipelines a central focus of his campaign.

The pipelines are seen by the ethanol industry as a vital piece of its economic future, allowing it to sell the fuel in low-carbon markets and allowing for the production of sustainable aviation fuel.

Ramaswamy has opposed the use of eminent domain to seize land for the pipelines’ construction.

“Why are the Republican puppets that claim to represent you quietly supporting this decision, or even worse, ignoring?” Ramaswamy said during a rally on the subject last year.

He also has called for the United States to “declare economic independence” from China.

Ramaswamy said he favors the Renewable Fuel Standard. He said he would prefer “consumer choice at the pump” over a government mandate, but the Renewable Fuel Standard is the “second best alternative.”

Asa Hutchinson

Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, has been critical of calls from Trump to raise tariffs on foreign nations and calls to end trade with China, which he said would hurt Iowa’s farmers.

He would instead drive up domestic production of key products while allowing farmers to sell to China.

Speaking with Drake University students, Hutchinson said his experience leading an agricultural state and growing up on a farm will help him make good agriculture policy while president.

“We need a president that understands how important the farm bill is that hasn’t been passed yet, that helps guide the farming economy here in Iowa,” he said. “We need to have a president that understands that agriculture depends upon the global market.”

Ryan Binkley

Ryan Binkley, a Texas pastor and CEO, has strongly opposed the creation of carbon dioxide pipelines in Iowa and the use of eminent domain to seize private land for the projects.

“(The Constitution) is so inconvenient, but so important,” he said. “If 99 percent of the people want to take my landowner’s rights, they just don’t have the right.”

Comments: cmccullough@qctimes.com