Iowa Secretary of Agriculture

Dave Price

The Iowa ag economy has been in a downturn for months and months. That affects not just farmers, but all of us. We'll get a status update from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

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For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating more than 50 years on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, April 25th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Dave Price.

 

Dave Price

Hi. Kay Henderson is off this week. Well, it is planting season in our state, but what kind of markets will those crops have when they come out of the fields? From tariffs to bird flu to manufacturing layoffs, the ag economy has taken hit after hit. Our guest today will help us better understand what is happening and may be ahead. He is Mike Naig. He's been here before. He's a Republican. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. He was appointed secretary back in 2018 when he succeeded Bill Northey. He then won election to full terms later in 2018 and 2022. Mr. Secretary, welcome back. Good to see you.

 

Mike Naig

It's good to be back. It's always fun to be here this time of year. There's a lot there's always a lot going on in the spring.

 

Dave Price

Amen to that. Across the table, Donnelle Eller, who reports on agriculture economy, environment and energy, all those things for the Des Moines Register. Welcome back. Hello.

 

Donnelle Eller

Thank you. Hello.

 

Dave Price

And Erin Murphy, Des Moines bureau chief for the Gazette in Cedar Rapids. Hello sir.

 

Erin Murphy

Hello.

 

 

Dave Price

All right. We got a lot to get to. We thought we would just go ahead and address the elephant in the room to begin us here. I'm sure you know what's coming here, but Erin would like to put it in the form of a question.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Mike, you are among the folks who have said that they are at least considering a run for governor in the wake of Governor Kim Reynolds announcement that she will not seek reelection next year. How does a potential candidate like yourself go about winning a Republican primary, first and foremost…what we expect to be a crowded Republican primary for this seat?

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, first of all, you know, two weeks ago, I thought that all I'd be thinking about was whether I was running for reelection as secretary. And, you know, that's a discussion that we were in with our family and had every intention that that would be exactly what we would be focused on. Certainly the Governor's decision - announcement - was a bit of a surprise to us and many. And so what that causes us to do is to pause and say, we should take a look at this. We've been encouraged by what we've been hearing from supporters and friends across the state to do just that. And, boy, it's not something that you rush into. We want to be thoughtful about it, seeking a lot of advice, praying about it. Talking about it as a family, you know? Here's what I know. I still, at this stage of my life, I want to be of service to the state of Iowa, and I want to think about the best ways that I can do that. If that is as Secretary of Agriculture, I will enthusiastically do that. If it's something else, then we're going to we're going to take a look at that. So what we're thinking about right now and talking to folks and asking the questions is, is there a pathway for me to do that? Is it something we're committed to? Is it something that we can be successful at? Is it the right time? All those things. And, you know, we're just we're just working through all those, those decisions. So mostly I'm thinking about what does it mean for us and what do we bring, and not so much about the field or potential field. I think here's the good news. From a Republican standpoint, we've got a deep bench. There are some great folks that are looking at this. And, I'm very confident that we're going to have at the top of the Republican ticket in ‘26, a great candidate for governor. And, you know, I'm glad that there's that kind of discussion that's happening in this state. It will I think it will be a busy primary.

 

Erin Murphy

Yeah. And I don't want to spend too much time on this because we have so much to cover. Official office side. But to that point you made about the pathway. How much do you see the Trump voters in Iowa, that, however you want to call it, wing of the party having an influence? And what in this primary and what will a candidate have to present to those voters?

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, I think the president will be very influential. And President Trump has had a good couple cycles here in the state of Iowa. So it's absolutely a factor. Again, at this point, really the discussions and the thought is on, is on my side of the table. It's on, it's with our family and talking with friends and supporters about what's that look like for us. And then, of course, as we get further down into this, you know, all those things have to come into focus. But again, hey, and I went through a, I went through a, a congested primary, a busy primary, five way primary with people who I consider to be friends and people I have a lot of respect for. And I hope that, however the primary shapes up for governor, for Republican side of things is that it's focused on somebody's ability to serve their vision for the state and not about tearing each other down, but just getting to the right place and the right candidate for the general election in ‘26.

 

 

Dave Price

Can we be blunt? Can you win a primary if President Trump endorses Attorney General Brenna Bird?

 

 

Mike Naig

I'm not prepared to talk about any other candidate. We’re looking at what the pathway looks like for us, if there is one, and how I can best serve our state. And again, if that's as secretary, I'm going to do that. I intend to be on the ballot in ‘26. I will give you that much.

 

 

Dave Price

One way or the other, alright.

 

 

Mike Naig

I don't think my desire to serve is not has not been extinguished just yet. And I'm I think there's more that we can give. And, I want to be thoughtful about that.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

So, as governor, are you prepared to move from talking about GMOs to gender affirming surgeries?

 

 

Mike Naig

I'm sorry, as governor? I'm not here as a candidate for governor. I mean, that's, this this was booked, long before that decision was made.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

But you would have to broaden the topics that you're comfortable talking about.

 

 

Mike Naig

Of course, of course. I get, you know, the range of issues that I look at as Secretary are a subset of what you have to look at as governor and certainly that's part of a consideration.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

And you're ready to tackle all of those difficult questions.

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, I think what I said was we're considering it and we're having a lot of conversations about it, and we're figuring out what the best, the best path is for us.

 

 

Dave Price

This is inside baseball, but are you already talking to staff? Potential staff?

 

 

Mike Naig

We’re, look, look, this is very much. This is.

 

 

Dave Price

Trying to figure out how far along you are.

 

 

Mike Naig

This is around my kitchen table. This is about me getting into a planter tractor here in the next couple of weeks, and giving a lot of thought to it. That's not to say we're not talking to a lot of folks, but but look, again, there's a lot of people looking at this. That's a good thing. That's a healthy thing. And we're going to give it a look as well.

 

 

Dave Price

How do you, as you step back, regardless of how you're planning here your current job or potentially another one, how do you assess our economy in this state?

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, look, let's just take ag economy. I mean, no, you know, lead into the program. It's very obvious to us. We've been saying for the last two years that there's a softening of the ag economy. And we're past that. It's not soften and softening now. It's it's tough. We've got a tough ag economy. And of course, as I like to say, you can't imagine a strong Iowa economy without a strong agriculture economy. And so that's, at its, at its core. and so those are things that we're going to have to feel our way through. Right? the overall health of the economy, the health of the ag economy, those are things that impact Iowa greatly. You know, there's been a lot of work done. Go back to Governor Branstad, Governor Reynolds leadership, this legislature putting Iowa in a great position, whether it's because of cutting taxes or, conservative, management of our state's budget. We are in a great position, certainly to be competitive in this country, to grow as a state, to be attractive to businesses and families. And I, I really do believe that's our opportunity. But, hey, there's no doubt about it. You've got, you've got, an economic challenge coming at us that we're going to have to, we're gonna have to get through.

 

 

Erin Murphy

And that was the case before President Trump took office for his second term. And obviously now we're, as David alluded to at the top, we're having new tariffs that are impacting trade. Going back to the first term, we sort of went through a 1.0 version of this. Right. And we had some exports, some trade markets lost. There was federal assistance to farmers. Here we are again. Are we heading down the same path? Is there light at the end of the tunnel for farmers for this?

 

 

Mike Naig

Yeah, I think much gets you should go back and compare to ‘18, ’19. Look, as I've been saying, if you're surprised that President Trump is using tariffs or the threat of tariffs in his economic policy or in his efforts to achieve certain outcomes with folks like Mexico or Canada in terms of border security and that sort of thing, you haven't been paying attention. He ran for president three times talking about these issues. Okay. So that's that's one. But you can go back to ‘18, ’19 and look at tariffs and some of the outcomes. And you know did we get to a better place with trade negotiations or not. There were new trade deals that were signed. And so, you know we got to a new place with China. There were many non-tariff barriers that weren't addressed with China as well, that had long been trade irritants. And so there was an effect, and I think it moved us in the right direction. Now, here's a difference, though, with where we are in the ag economy now versus then. We had, and there were market facilitation payments that were made out of the Commodity Credit Corporation by USDA. We don't have the kind of buffer in our ag economy. Profitability and margins are not where they were even then today. Again, we're in year three now of a downward motion in terms of on farm revenue. So, that's a message that we've certainly sent to the administration and, to Secretary Rollins when she was here just a couple of weeks ago, is there's not a lot of room to absorb that shock. So one, USDA needs to be ready to provide assistance if they can. But I tell you what, I'm encouraged by the the idea that you've got countries coming to the table to negotiate better deals. Now, how fast is that going to happen? And is it going to happen all at once? Of course not. But I think if you can get to a better place. If tariffs are used as a tactic, not as a strategy in and of themselves, that can lead to some good outcomes. Maybe it was in question a while back whether it was going to be the strategy or the tactics. It's clear now this was about trying to get countries to the table. And, and that can be a very good thing for us to have a more diversified and a fairer trade portfolio for U.S. agriculture.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Do you believe that will be the case in, say, 2 to 3 years, that Iowa farmers will be in a healthier position because of what we're going through right now?

 

 

Mike Naig

Absolutely. two things, right. One is, this sort of also brings the opportunity to say, all right, if we're going to let's use more of what we grow domestically. Now, there are limitations to that. You know, there are some products that we export because we don't use them in the United States. Pork is a good example of that. There are certain cuts, beef too, where you've got 100% of that product goes outside of the country. If it doesn't, then it's a waste stream and has to be used some other way. But corn and soybean, let's unleash biofuels in this country. Let's go year round access to E15. Let's go renewable biodiesel. Let's, go sustainable aviation fuel. We could use more of what we grow here. Those would be signals that could come. So what you hope and certainly what we're advocating for is unleashing that domestic consumption, but needing to make sure that we've got an expanded trade portfolio as well.

 

Donnelle Eller

But certainly, we're not going to replace China with, you know, year round E15, right?

 

 

Mike Naig

That's that's right. You can't, China is awfully hard to

 

 

Donnelle Eller

Or Mexico.

 

 

Mike Naig

Yeah. You know, you talk you talk about how do you replace China. Well, it's not easily done with one country or another or one policy. It really would have to be, I mean, when it comes to soybean in particular, they are the dominant importer of soybean. And, you know, if you lose market share in that space, you're going to have to gain it somewhere else, or you're going to have to use that product in some other fashion. So, no, you're correct. It's not a 1 to 1. There are some game changing things that could happen. Look, India is a good example. I was with the governor in India in September of last year. Famously protectionist country, largest democracy, largest country in the world, largest democracy in the world by population. And, conventional wisdom is that it's going to take 20 years or plus to open India to U.S. exports, U.S. products. And boy, they need a lot of what we, I mean that the gap between their productivity and their consumption is huge. But if you have a President and a Prime Minister that decide we're going to have a trade framework, I think those things can happen a heck of a lot faster than 20 years. So I say that's a potential game changer that's hanging out there. A lot of effort being put into India. Perhaps that's a new market that we just don't we don't even factor in today.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

So you said that you are in conversations with Secretary Rollins. The first round of tariffs cost taxpayers $23 billion. Do you have any idea how much it might cost in a second round?

 

 

Mike Naig

I don't, and I know USDA has declined to put an exact number on it. I mean, the reality is, and, you know, you have to run, you got to do that analysis. And again, nobody. Look, nobody wants to be in a situation where you need where you need assistance. But we all know we know that today the pork industry, for instance, is already experiencing and has seen some price fluctuation back a little bit, but had taken a dip. You know, those are things you're going to have to calculate that and again, we don't want to be there. But if we need to be, it's it potentially is a large number. I don't think we need to, there's no holding back on that. If it's a big disruption, you're going to have to compensate for that somehow.

 

 

Dave Price

Speaking of numbers, one thing we have not been able to find out is how many folks we lost who work for the USDA in our state. Do you have any idea what that figure is?

 

 

Mike Naig

I don't have specific numbers. And of course, some of that is, it's work in progress.

 

 

Dave Price

Yeah. For sure.

 

 

Mike Naig

And, and, you know, so the thing that we it's kind of the lens that I'm putting out. We, we have great partnerships with our USDA. We work closely with USDA, FDA, EPA on a variety of things. Certainly in the conservation space, our NRCs colleagues are critically important. Frankly, it drives home the importance of the state of Iowa having a robust conservation infrastructure and effort is because we need to carry our own weight as well. But, we're not, we're not aware yet of the total impacts and what that will ultimately mean. The question that I, we keep asking and what we will ask every time there's an adjustment or a reorganization, and this is things we know about today, are things that people might be speculating about is it is. So what's the next step. What's the so what? This has happened now what? What does it mean to provide service to farmers? Can we still get the amount of conservation work done? What can we do to streamline a process? I mean, that's the those are the right questions to be asking, not just about pure numbers.

 

 

Dave Price

Well what about like bird flu, and that's been kind of back and forth. Right? Got rid of some people then maybe tried to bring some of them back. So like bottom line are we are we worse off without some of these folks working to protect us, to research, to the kind of first responders, you know, to when something happens?

 

 

Mike Naig

So I think this is a good example of where you'd say, I think we're I'm certain I'll just speak. I'm anxious and I talk to others too and say we're all anxious to sort of. Look, the American people said there needed to be a shock to the system. Donald Trump goes back to Washington and brings a shock to the system. There's no doubt about that. I think what everybody's anxious for is that more strategic approach. Now t, give Secretary Rollins the tools she needs, let her reorganize USDA in a way, and then hold them accountable for needing to perform the mission. I like I think Administrator Zeldin said it earlier this week or maybe last week of we should aspire to have not one person more or one person less than we need to perform the functions and the mission of EPA.

 

 

Mike Naig

That's the mentality that that there needs to be. There's no argument. I wouldn't make an argument. I think we need more folks within APHIS and with the animal industries portion of USDA. And you lose experience that can really hurt in an outbreak especially. And so, you know, that's something we certainly are advocating for is the appropriate workforce and partnering with states. I mean, that's the other opportunity is that we end up having an opportunity, a chance to or where states are working together in a more cooperative fashion with the USDA.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

Well, I think there is growing concern that avian influenza is becoming a greater threat to humans. Do you think that we should be vaccinating poultry? Regardless of what kind of export impacts there might be?

 

 

Mike Naig

Yeah. So here we are in our going into our fourth year with high path H5N1 and I think there's a lot of people that say, well, why are we talking about vaccine now when we weren't willing to three years ago? And I think the reality is it's because of how long it has lasted. And because if you look around the world, it's it used to be that one country or one region would be experiencing high path and then it would move on. It is not. It's around the world. So that I think, is the opportunity to say, now's the time. We need the research to find effective tools, effective vaccines. You've got to then think about how do you deploy it. Are you vaccinating in advance of with everything, or are you just using it in an outbreak situation? And the other piece is trade. And you mentioned that. Look, people view it differently. If you're the number one egg producing state in the nation, you got, those hens are worth protecting and they've got a long lifespan. And vaccine would help. If you're a broiler state and you've got a much shorter time frame that those birds are on the ground, then you view this differently and trade can be affected. So it's not easy and it's not a silver bullet, but I believe those things are we can work through those things. And we also should treat this together. We don't want to sacrifice one sector for another. So let's get to a place where we can, with trading partners, see the changes we need to see. By the way, we're not the only country that's looking at this. There are other countries around the world, and that's sort of the why do I believe that can happen now, where it maybe wouldn't have a couple of years ago. It's a different ball. We're been at this too long and it's in too many places.

 

 

Erin Murphy

The HHS Secretary weighed in on this recently. Robert F Kennedy Jr. and again, he's HHS. He's not USDA, but he said that he thinks that the scientists and the government should let the bird flu just run its course in herds and the whole natural herd immunity thing there. As someone who's dealt with multiple outbreaks now in your tenure here in Iowa, what did you think of that?

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, I don't think that's a workable solution at all.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Why not?

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, you know, the whole concept of trying to be proactive and containing virus like we do and unfortunately having to depopulate even some, you know, birds, the idea is that you're trying to reduce the amount of virus that's even available to be spread. I always like to say imagine ten farms. One is positive. What you're trying to do is protect the nine by dealing with the one. You don't want the one to become three, five, seven, and nine. And, you think we've had price issues with eggs and shortages. Imagine if we didn't have that kind of effective effort. So that that's where, that's where. And, you know, that's a moving target do you sort of go for that herd immunity piece and you say, well, that might work for this strain, but what about the next one? It's just, you got to have a much more realistic approach. Now, the other piece is how do you get ahead of this to begin with? Vaccine can help with that or as a strategy. Biosecurity is the other key. You want to prevent birds from getting sick to begin with. That's really where you got you got to go there as best you can because your, your tools are limited on the other side of trying to manage it. And by the way, to the extent that this becomes a, you know, spilling over to other species or potentially a human health issue is manage it effectively as an animal health issue. Deal with it in that space and you will prevent it from becoming those other things. That's the mantra I think we should look at.

 

 

Dave Price

The USDA has been looking at different programs and cutting in some places, kind of freezing in some places. And as we look in our state that has impacted some farmers who used to receive some of these to maybe make it more competitive so they can produce local produce for schools, for food pantries, child care centers, all of those that you have been pushing Choose Iowa,

 

 

Mike Naig

Yeah.

 

 

Dave Price

as a way to support. But, you know, it can't compare at the same level with this federal. Do we need to step in and greatly put more state funding behind something like Choose Iowa? I think bottom line, we're looking at people beyond the

 

 

Mike Naig

Yeah

 

 

Dave Price

ag world who are losing out on a bunch of stuff. And is that what they're just going to have to get used to among in this kind of DOGE mentality?

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, I think, let's be clear about the local food purchase assistance program. Look, we like that. We like the concept, we like the program. It did some good. Connected the dots between local producers and institutional buyers. And that's one of those, you know, if your marketplace is the farmer's market and it's a rainy day, well, you had a bad week and, you know, and that's going to still be your year maybe main outlet. But if you're also marketing to the school or a food bank or a restaurant or something, you know, you kind of ride through some of that or you get predictability. So the institutional buyers are fantastic thing. It's really important. But let's be clear, LFPA as it was funded, it was a it was a COVID era. It's a pandemic era funded program. We knew getting into it that it would have a, I can, I know we sat and had conversations that there would be a cliff at the end of this. People knew that. And so you have to get back to some normal order when it comes to budgeting. The right place to have that kind of conversation or to fund that or authorize that program is a farm bill and do it in a way that's predictable. And, you know, at some point we simply have to unhook from and move beyond these COVID era, pandemic era, funding streams, regardless of the merits of the program are good. Which means, hey, I think there's we need to fight for that in a new place.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

I mean, this is literally the kind of farmers that you and the state have been trying to support.

 

 

Mike Naig

Absolutely.

 

 

Donnelle Eller

They're doing a lot of the work that you guys have been advocating for. So it seems like why not just continue a program that really does work, and effectively too, if you're trying to use money effectively.

 

 

Mike Naig

Look, in fact, some of these folks have been doing this work for years and, you know, we launched Choose Iowa in 2023. I want to give credit where credit is due. There's been a lot of work done for many years to build this. We're going to the next level. I think bringing that kind of umbrella and that kind of support. We're investing millions as a state in to Choose Iowa grant programs. We do have a very small pilot program that does roughly the same thing as LFPA we're asking for additional support from the legislature to do this. And we will be advocating for a continuation of this effort at the national level at USDA. We think it's perfectly reasonable for USDA to be involved in something like that. But you've got to look again, this is back to the basics, right?

 

 

Donnelle Eller

Well, why recreate the wheel? That's what I don't understand.

 

 

Mike Naig

Well, you may not have to. You may be able to run the program as it is. It's the funding source, Donnelle. I mean, you can't ignore that piece of it and funding things in a way that's not sustainable in terms of the source of that funding. If that's coming out of the CCC versus through normal appropriations. I mean, that is actually something that's worth just acknowledging the distinction for. We want something that can actually stand the test of time, be around, be something that you can plan for. It doesn't have a cliff that drops off at some point. I mean, I think that's worth acknowledging, I think.

 

 

Erin Murphy

We're down to our last about 90 seconds here already. I wanted to really quick ask you, up at the Statehouse, last time on the show you were asked about eminent domain, carbon capture pipelines, and said you can see both sides of that issue from both landowner rights and the need to make certain products in Iowa. Given that debate, and that's continuing and maybe even escalating up at the Statehouse this year, and landowners pushing even harder for the, for example, a bill that would just straight out ban eminent domain for hazardous liquid pipelines. Do you feel then compelled to take a more firm position on that? And again, also through the lens of a possible different campaign?

 

 

Mike Naig

Yeah. Well, look, this continues to be, it's a very emotional issue. And I really do believe that we need to take this in two parts. It is the CO2 pipeline piece itself and the impact on ethanol and corn prices and land prices and all those things. And then there is this question of eminent domain and the proper usage of it. Look, here's what I'll say. You have to try to achieve some, normally I would say you should try to achieve balance. In this case, you don't want balance. You want the thumb of law on the right, on the scale of the landowner. You want it to be hard. You want it to be difficult. You want it to be a least, least desirable option to use eminent domain. Nobody likes it. Nobody wants to use it. But you got to have laws around that that are that that folks know how to play by the rules and that there's due process and then that the courts adjudicate that. If the legislature wants to adjust that balance or slide that scale, then, then so be it. It should be rare. It should be the least desirable option to get something done. And there should be overwhelming voluntary agreements in place before something like a project, use any project with eminent domain, would go forward. I think that content should continue to be our guardrails.

 

 

Dave Price

There should be more time because we're out of it.

 

 

Mike Naig

Wow. Always.

Dave Price

Mr. Secretary. Thank you, as always. If you missed any of this show or want to watch any other episodes of Iowa Press, you can find them all at iowapbs.org. Kay will be back in this chair next week. For everybody here at Iowa PBS, I'm Dave Price. Thanks for joining us.

 

 

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