Iowa Ag's Future Is on the Ballot: Mike Naig Answers the Tough Questions!

And then that's part of the Secretary of Agriculture and IDALS.

Yeah.

And I just think that we're so focused on just one issue maybe in Iowa that people have lost sight of what of what all the duties that you have.

The secretary.

Yeah.

Well, you know, if I think back to certainly water quality and conservation is a significant part.

We are the Department of Ag and Land Stewardship, and I'm directly involved in those things.

And I'm proud of the work that we've done to set records for conservation adoption and also say that we're not satisfied with that in any way, shape or form.

I mean, my team isn't the hundreds of conservation professionals, all the partners doing this work.

We try to lead by giving that voice to and that vision of more, more, acceleration, acceleration and scale up.

But if I look and think, how have I spent, maybe another issue that I've spent a significant amount of my time on that maybe people would be surprised about is it's around foreign animal disease response.

The state vet is somebody who's an appointee of mine, African spine fever, foot and mouth disease, and the one that we all know because it's happened here is hypathamine influenza.

Those are decisions that come right to my desk.

We do that response in partnership with USDA, but we are the lead in responding to that.

And unfortunately, what happens with foreign animal diseases is you have international trade shuts down.

So all this trade that we've been talking about, and we do the same thing, by the way, to other countries.

If they have a disease and we don't want it, we shut down and say, don't send us anything until you can prove you don't have it anymore.

So how you respond, how effectively, how swiftly you respond can save you.

And we literally have billions of dollars of economic activity at stake if we do this wrong.

You get the wrong person who doesn't understand these things and can't build the team that can effectively respond.

We literally are opening ourselves up to billions of dollars worth of impact.

And by the way, those things also have a direct linkage to you.

We all remember the price of eggs skyrocketing because we had high path breaking out across the country.

Right.

I mean, you have a disease that gets out of control.

And then that's part of the Secretary of Agriculture and IDALS.

Yeah.

And I just think that we're so focused on just one issue maybe in Iowa that people have lost sight of what of what all the duties that you have.

The secretary.

Yeah.

Well, you know, if I think back to certainly water quality and conservation is a significant part.

We are the Department of Ag and Land Stewardship, and I'm directly involved in those things.

And I'm proud of the work that we've done to set records for conservation adoption and also say that we're not satisfied with that in any way, shape or form.

I mean, my team isn't the hundreds of conservation professionals, all the partners doing this work.

We try to lead by giving that voice to and that vision of more, more, acceleration, acceleration and scale up.

But if I look and think, how have I spent, maybe another issue that I've spent a significant amount of my time on that maybe people would be surprised about is it's around foreign animal disease response.

The state vet is somebody who's an appointee of mine, African spine fever, foot and mouth disease, and the one that we all know because it's happened here is hypathamine influenza.

Those are decisions that come right to my desk.

We do that response in partnership with USDA, but we are the lead in responding to that.

And unfortunately, what happens with foreign animal diseases is you have international trade shuts down.

So all this trade that we've been talking about, and we do the same thing, by the way, to other countries.

If they have a disease and we don't want it, we shut down and say, don't send us anything until you can prove you don't have it anymore.

So how you respond, how effectively, how swiftly you respond can save you.

And we literally have billions of dollars of economic activity at stake if we do this wrong.

You get the wrong person who doesn't understand these things and can't build the team that can effectively respond.

We literally are opening ourselves up to billions of dollars worth of impact.

And by the way, those things also have a direct linkage to you.

We all remember the price of eggs skyrocketing because we had high path breaking out across the country.

Right.

I mean, you have a disease that gets out of control.