Holz Honored for “Outstanding Service To Agriculture”

(Le Mars) — Tuesday was recognized as National Agriculture Day and the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee hosted its annual Agri-Business Luncheon.
Ethanol was the topic of discussion during the early portion of the program as Eamon Bryne the C-E-O of Plymouth Energy of Merrill spoke to the gathering.
Byrne informed the group that there is a bright future for the corn-based ethanol industry.

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Bryne says that the challenge for the ethanol industry is to locate additional new markets.

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Bryne says that nearly 80 percent of the ethanol produced in the Merrill plant is targeted for export purposes.

With last week’s train derailment that occurred near Graettinger spilling ethanol into a creek, some people wonder if it would be possible to transport the ethanol fuel by an underground pipeline. Byrne says ethanol attracts moisture, and by transporting the corn-based fuel by pipeline could create
problems with the fuel.

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During the luncheon, Cole Sitzmann, Vice President of the Le Mars Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee presented the Chamber’s “Outstanding Service To Agriculture” award to past Le Mars veterinarian and now state representative,
Chuck Holz. Holz serves as the vice-chairman of the Agriculture Committee for the Iowa House of Representatives.

The key-note luncheon speaker was Iowa Deputy of Agriculture Mike Naig. In his address, Naig recalled some statistics relating to Iowa agriculture. He then talked about how resilient Iowans are, and especially those involved with Iowa agriculture.

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Naig focused much of his speech on the initiative to clean up Iowa’s water. He mentioned that it is not just agriculture’s problem, but everyone has a stake in having clean water. Naig commented on that it was good news when a federal
judge ruled last week to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Water Works utility.

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Naig says there are thousands of farmers and businesses getting involved with the efforts to clean our waters.

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The Deputy Secretary of Agriculture says a lot of money was spent because of the pending lawsuit, but, in terms of actually taking steps to improve the water quality, none of the money actually helped with those efforts.

An Akron-Westfield FFA member was the recipient of the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee scholarship. Danika Tindall received the honor from Chamber Agriculture Committee member Kevin Eekhoff during the noon luncheon.

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