Regional Industry & News

Lahn meets Sioux County voters, talks cancer rates and farm-to-school food

SIOUX COUNTY, Iowa (KTIV) - With 26 days until Election Day, candidates continue campaigning for support.

Republican candidate for Iowa governor Zach Lahn met with voters Thursday, Oct. 8, on a Sioux County farm, just outside of Orange City.

Voters asked questions and heard from Lahn about his positions on issues facing the state, including agriculture and education.

Cancer rates

Lahn said one of his goals as governor would be to address higher-than-average cancer rates in the state.

“What I mentioned here is that we’re an outlier in the country,” Lahn said. “So we have to look at why are we an outlier first, and one of the ways that we’re an outlier is in some of what we’re talking about within agriculture. And there’s second order consequences of things, and we’re willing to discuss those things. So number one, we just have to make sure we’re increasing the funding to our research centers and independent research to find out exactly what is causing this fully. But I think we have a pretty good idea, which is why I want to start with nitrate reduction in the state, using incentives to work alongside farmers to do that. I think that would be the biggest lever we can pull.”

Farm-to-school food initiative

Lahn said if elected, he also hopes to start an initiative to ensure 80% of food served in Iowa’s public schools is grown in Iowa.

“All the protein served in our public schools should be coming from the state of Iowa. That knocks out, what, 30% of what we’re going to be eating right there, or more? I’m not exactly sure on the exact number,” Lahn said. “Then what you’re doing is you’re just creating a market to where people can take advantage of it, and if they want to start growing something that’s alternative, they know they have a market to sell it into. And there’s a directive from the state to prioritize local producers. So if you’re growing a produce, if you want to start growing a produce, you have a market that you can pre-contract what you’re growing to know you have somewhere to sell it to. So over time, we’ll have more and more people coming off the sideline to grow different things. And we’ll see diversification in agriculture, which is what will really benefit the state.”

Lahn was also scheduled to meet with voters Thursday night in Council Bluffs.

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