Government works well - sometimes
Iowa's state government has done an excellent job thus far in helping the state's farmers cope with the aftereffects of this year's devastating floods. Gov. Chet Culver deserves credit for coordinating the response.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey also deserves praise for his tireless efforts to identify ways the damage to the state's farm economy can be alleviated.
While Northey now heads an important segment of the state government, he's spent most of his life growing corn and soybeans. As a fourth-generation Iowa farmer, the secretary has the kind of perspective on the rural economy that one only gains by living on a farm and being immersed in farm life.
That may be part of the reason Northey has shown great insight into the ways government can be of quick assistance in a world changed mightily by nature's fury.
A case in point was his call for Culver to open state lands for haying and grazing to assist livestock producers struggling with high feed costs.
''I understand that this isn't a silver bullet that helps all producers, but the more feed we have available the better,'' Northey said in a statement released by his office July 7. ''Pork producers have been hurt badly by the record feed prices and while this won't necessarily help them directly ... if we can give cattlemen another option for their animals we can help prevent the two from competing against each other for feed.''
Northey and Culver also joined forces to urge U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer to release Conservation Reserve Program acres for haying and grazing as well.
Schafer moved quickly to make those areas available for grazing in counties as designated Presidential Disaster Areas.
It's commonplace in our complicated 21st-century world to bemoan the failure of government to respond to real-world problems promptly and with flexibility. Sadly both elected officials and bureaucrats often let us down. Culver, Northey and Schafer are demonstrating, however, that government can be both innovative and speedy in responding to a crisis.
