Des Moines Register

Food and agriculture are getting short shrift in the presidential campaign, despite Iowa's role as the starting point in the race for the White House, say the three co-chairs of the AGree food policy project. They called on the candidates to elevate food and agricultural policy.

A study by an Iowa consulting company estimates the state economy lost $1.2 billion due to the avian influenza epidemic, reports the Des Moines Register.

Grocers, restaurants and other companies that use organic foods "have turned to creative strategies for wooing prospective farmers and ranchers," says the Des Moines Register.

Nitrate pollution affects communities in Iowa ranging from the state's largest cities to "many of its smallest," says the Des Moines Register, "evidence of a contamination problem that reaches across the state."

The government used national-security laws, commonly employed against spies and terror plots, to nip the theft of genetically engineered hybrid seed from Iowa cornfields, says the Des Moines Register.

Trustees of the Des Moines Water Works voted at the end of a 60-day warning period to sue drainage districts in three counties in northwest Iowa over high levels of nitrate in the Raccoon River, a source of drinking water for Iowa's capital city.

Two potential aspirants for the Republican nomination for president, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz spoke against an ethanol mandate at the Iowa Ag Summit, according to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Iowa entrepreneur Bruce Rastetter, who played a major role in the development of large-scale hog farming and the ethanol boom in Iowa, tells the Des Moines Register that he doesn't view himself as a political kingmaker.

Fast-growing Pioneer, one of the largest U.S. seed companies, could face "long-term repercussions" from a proposal by a New York investor to break up corporate parent DuPont, reports the Des Moines Register.

Dickinson County in northwestern Iowa, by asking for a temporary moratorium on new, large-scale livestock farms, "could become the next battleground" over massive feedlots, says the Des Moines Register.

State Rep Gary Worthan, who represents two of the northwest Iowa counties targeted by the Des Moines Water Works for a lawsuit over nitrate levels in the Raccoon River, said the utility should "reel in their legal beagles...talk with us and find a common solution" said the Des Moines Register.

Trustees of the Des Moines Water Works "affirmed the utility's intent to sue three northwestern Iowa counties over high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River," which supplies water to the state capital, says the Des Moines Register.

The Des Moines Water Works trustees are expected to vote today to sue three farming counties in northwestern Iowa for high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River, one of two watersheds tapped for drinking water in Iowa's capital city.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), aided by a giant U.S. seed company, "are testing a new approach to improve the production of corn among the millions of poor, small-scale farmers who dominate African agriculture," says the...

Republican Joni Ernst led Democrat Bruce Braley by 7 points, 51-44, in the latest Iowa Poll of the Des Moines Register. It was Ernst's largest lead in any poll in a month.

"The race for the U.S. Senate seat from Kansas is about to get nastier," says the Kansas City Star in a story headlined, "With a week to go, U.S. Senate candidates in Kansas still haven't closed the sale."

Republican Joni Ernst's folksiness seems to be paying off in the retail politics of Iowa, says the weekly political tip sheet Sabato's Crystal Ball, in rating the Senate race in the Hawkeye State as "leans Republican," vs the previous "Toss-up."

President Obama says agricultural biotechnology is an important element in feeding the world and adapting to climate change. In a letter to the granddaughter of Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, the president said...