Grassley talks farming with school kids, Cabinet picks

CENTRAL CITY - U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a New Hartford farmer, is having to explain family farming to a lot of people these days.

'This farm equipment is used to cut up cornstalks,” Grassley said, showing Central City third-graders a picture book about farming Thursday. 'It's called a disc. It's real sharp.”

Grassley, 83, went on to describe how his father saved seed from the previous year's corn harvest to plant in the spring and how Grassley and his siblings milked the cows by hand twice a day growing up. He didn't seem to mind when the phrase 'butts of the ear” caused giggles in a cluster of boys by the dry-erase board.

'I love coming to schools because people don't understand government very well,” Grassley said when a girl in the front asked about his favorite activity.

Grassley also plans to do some explaining to former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, President Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Agriculture, the 36-year U.S. senator told The Gazette. Perdue has called Grassley's office to try to set up a meeting, which Grassley said will likely happen in the next week to 10 days.

'I served under secretaries of agriculture from the south and California and, I tell you, I just don't think there's the appreciation of the family farm and institution of the Midwest and what we contribute to agriculture,” Grassley said.

One thing that chaps the Republican's hide is the removal of a hard cap on farm subsidies included in past farm bills.

'I don't think the federal government should be subsidizing big farmers to get bigger. Ten percent of farmers get three-fourths of the farm program, so this cap is very important,” Grassley said. 'I got it through the House and Senate with exactly the same language in this last farm bill. But when they went to conference, there were three people from the south and one from the Midwest and so it got effectively gutted.”

Grassley isn't worried about the Renewable Fuel Standard, even though former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Trump's choice for Secretary of Energy, and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump's Environmental Protection Agency pick, are from big oil states.

'I've talked with both of them. They both support the RFS,” Grassley said. 'They may come from states that don't support it and the industry that doesn't support it, but President Trump supports it and that's what counts. I'm going to hold President Trump responsible for that.”

Grassley also fielded questions Thursday from Central City high schoolers, including sophomore Macy White, who wanted to know if Grassley supports Trump's plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday called off a meeting with Trump after renewed statements about Mexico paying for a beefed-up border.

'In a sense, I've already supported it,” Grassley said, referring to 600 miles of fence along the border. Drones, surveillance balloons or other technology could help enforce the border where a wall isn't practical, he said. Grassley endorses Trump's plan to crack down on people who overstay their visas - one aspect of illegal immigration White had never considered, she said later.

'I didn't know there were people who keep coming back after they've been kicked out,” she said. Still, she doesn't think a wall separating the U.S. and Mexico is a good plan. 'The U.S. has learned a lot from other cultures. I don't know if building a wall will really help.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com