(Spencer)– Candidates for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture squared off in a debate Thursday at the Clay County Fair.
Denise O’Brien of Atlantic and Bill Northey of Spirit Lake exhibited clear differences over local control and the placement of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFO’s.
O’Brien spoke in favor of local control, saying local officials should be trusted to make those decisions. She added more needs to be done to bring back family-type farm operations, saying studies have shown a good margin of profit for farms with organic operations.
Northey is opposed to local control, saying it will force more family farm operations out of business and that it would actually benefit the larger operators since they would have more sites at their disposal. Northey added he’s against giving the Director of the Department of Natural Resources power to veto construction permits for CAFO’s.
