MEAT PACKER LEGISLATION
US Representative Randy Feenstra has introduced a bill aimed at creating more transparency in the cattle market.
Rep. Feenstra says the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act would require the US Department of Agriculture Secretary to establish regions across the United States, and establish minimuym levels of fed cattle purchases. It would create a database of marketing contracts, boxed beef pricing, and reports of carcass weights, in order to ensure transparency. There would also be penalties established for packer violations of the new rules.
Feenstra says the four major meatpackers are distorting the market to increase their profits. This bill would expose packers’ price-fixing schemes.
US Senator Chuck Grassley and three other senators have introduced a companion bill in the US Senate.
AG LUNCHEON
The 26th annual LeMars Area Chamber of Commerce AgriBusiness Luncheon is coming up on March 22. Janelle Johnson with American Bank is helping organize the event.
Johnson says the event unites business and agriculture.
The event kicks off with a morning coffee and a guest speaker…
There will also be a presentation of awards that morning.
The highlight of the luncheon is a keynote speaker.
Tickets to the event March 22 are now on sale.
The AgriBusiness Luncheon will be held at the Le Mars Convention Center. It’s the first time since covid that the luncheon has been renewed.
NORTHWESTERN SPRING BREAK
Several students from Northwestern College in Orange City are heading out this week for spring break — but their trips are working mission trips — not a chance to sit on a beach and soak up the sun. Northwestern director of admissions, Patrick Hummel says they 13 trips planned this year.
The nine U-S trips include going to New Orleans, Kansas City, New Mexico, Compton, California, and northern Minnesota for a variety of different mission activities. Hummel says all the students volunteer for the trips.
He says students are working to help others and they get something in return as well.
Hummel says there are lessons you don’t learn in a classroom.
He says students join teams and aren’t necessarily paired up with friends, so they get the added benefit of developing new friends on campus.
All the students pay a deposit, and then they do some fundraising as teams for some of the different projects to pay for their trip.
STUDENT WALKOUT
Students in more than a dozen Iowa school districts are planning to walk out of their classes this afternoon. It’s a protest against bills in the legislature they say will hurt L-G-B-T-Q people. Students say they want to show solidarity with students worried about bills banning transgender health care for teens and criticism of books about L-G-B-T-Q issues. Among the schools where walkouts are planned include Storm Lake in northwest Iowa. A student protest is also planned at Iowa State University.
CULVERT PROJECTS
The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors took action on three projects Tuesday. One was the purchase of right of way in section 17 of Plymouth Township for a culvert project on 270th Street. The purchase price was just over 25-hundred dollars. The Supervisors also approved plans for two culvert projects – one in Union Township, five miles northwest of Kingsley on 270th Street, the other 4.5 miles north-northeast of Kingsley in Henry Township, also on 270th Street. Both projects involve replacement of steel beam bridges with concrete box culverts.
The Supervisors took bids and awarded contracts for four other culvert projects, to take place this summer. Of the four contractors submitting bids, one, Richards Construction of Sac City, was the low bidder on three of the projects. The other sent to Nelson and Rock Contracting of Onawa. The bids for the four projects totaled some 900-thousand dollars, all of them below the estimated costs of each project.
The Supervisors approved property tax exemptions for 14 applicants whose land meets native prairie and wetlands criteria. They also approved a rental agreement with the state Department of Corrections for an office in the 2nd Ave Service Building for a probation officer.
HOUSE PIPELINE BILL
A House committee has approved a bill to require that developers get permits from every other state other along proposed carbon pipeline routes before construction could begin here. The bill outlines how farmers could file claims if tile lines are damaged or the topsoil from cropland displaced by the pipelines isn’t restored. The bill also would require voluntary participation from property owners along 90 percent of the route before state regulators could grant the pipeline companies authority to seize the rest of the land. Pipeline developers and the renewable fuels industry oppose the bill. During last (Tuesday) night’s committee meeting, two lawmakers announced they would not vote on this or any other bills dealing with the pipelines. Both said their families may have a financial stake in the pipelines since the routes pass through their land and the companies offer compensation for those easements.
