With the Republican Iowa caucuses just one week away, Hawkeye State farmers are revealing how the 2024 presidential election will serve as a pivotal moment for the economy and agricultural industry.
“I’m afraid if we keep heading down this path, we’ve got a lot of destruction ahead,” fifth-generation farmer Rick DeGroote told FOX Business’ Grady Trimble.
U.S. Department of Agriculture data estimates that production costs for farmers increased by about $15 billion in 2023. Additionally, American corn producers reportedly worry the Biden administration’s electric vehicle push will drastically reduce demand for corn-based ethanol, which is used to power gas engines.
Although Iowa’s farmland stays mostly barren in the dead of winter, its political landscape is anything but, as DeGroote represents one of many industry leaders who feel at a crossroads in the upcoming election.
“Most of our corn goes to ethanol, and without that, that would cripple the farm economy,” DeGroote added.
“It seems like that we are an easy scapegoat for a population that is looking for someone to blame, and knowing full well that we really don’t have a very big voice,” said Kyle Mehmen, of MBS Family Farms.
For the first time in its 55-year history, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) reported in its annual Winter Reliability Assessment that energy policy is one of the top threats to the U.S. power grid due to the Biden administration’s green agenda. It also said the key factors contributing to the risk are increasing demand for electricity to power things like electric vehicles, decreasing generation due to the premature closures of coal and gas-fired power plants.
When Trimble polled a focus group of six Iowa farmer-constituents, four Republicans answered that they stand undecided over which candidate to support as the party’s presidential nominee.
“I want to see strong economic policy for our country. The issues that face my farm are no different than any other business. It’s inflation, it’s labor, it’s taxation, so that’s what I’m looking at in the candidates this year,” sixth-generation farmer from Jesup, Ben Riensche also told Trimble.
Husband-wife farming team Eric and Krystal Doolittle claim they’ve been dissatisfied with the past four years, and want to see someone “other than Biden” be elected to office.
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“I am a person that wants to pick the president based on their policies, and being in the [agriculture] industry, it’s really easy to see how policies impact us directly,” Krystal said, while her husband listed “rising interest costs that we’re undergoing now, and the massive amount of inflation.”
The latest FOX Business poll indicated former President Donald Trump leads by 34 points amongst surveyed Iowa Republicans, and that 52% of likely GOP caucus-goers support Trump, putting him over 50% for the first time. Next, it’s Ron DeSantis at 18% and Nikki Haley at 16%.
FOX Business’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.