Letters to the Editor: Jacob, Carter, Bergstrom

Free Veggies program another great success

By Susan Jacob, Charles City

To the Citizens of Floyd County:

I am amazed at the generosity of people in our rural community. When a call goes out for help, you share what you have with those in need.

For the third year in a row, you have donated your extra garden produce to free giveaways on Saturdays in August and September. An initiative through Floyd County ISU Extension with the help of a Growing Together Iowa grant provides fresh food to those who want it.

This year ISU Rising Star interns created a Facebook page for us called Free Veggies-Floyd County. Using social media posts, we got the word out that free vegetables would be distributed in the Lions Rose Garden.

In addition, volunteers from CC Cares showed up for eight Saturdays to distribute the vegetables. The program was coordinated by Floyd County ISU Extension Director Lesley Milius and Secretary Amy Leaman. I wrote the grant, and fellow Master Gardeners Doug Davis, Dawn Kozisek and Patty Staudt donated produce or helped with distribution.

And then every week local gardeners showed up to donate what they harvested. It was amazing because we never knew what we’d have. The public came to receive fresh food, and everything was given away. If we had an abundance of cucumbers, for example, they went the next Monday to Messiah Food Pantry, TLC: The Learning Center, senior congregate meal sites in Charles City and Rockford, or Charles City Schools.

Thank you to everyone who donated veggies.

For those who received free produce, we are happy to have provided fresh food during August and September. Now we are asking for your reaction.

Please respond with comments by Oct. 1st if A) you donated produce; or B) you received free produce; or C) you volunteered with the distribution. Please tell us something we can use in the final grant report on the Facebook page for Free Veggies-Floyd County.

Pipeline opponents are not against ethanol

By Kathy Carter, Rockford

Recently, the Iowa Utilities Board has received a few “letters of support” regarding the proposed CO2 pipelines. Most are form letters, with no original thoughts by the writers.

They are merely repeating the same incorrect thought: That those of us against the pipelines are against ethanol.

That could not be more wrong! Many of the people fighting the pipelines are corn growers themselves. If we all were “against ethanol”, wouldn’t the majority of those farmers be on board with the idea of pipelines?

The truth of it is this: We are against the pipelines because of the massive, years-long destruction to the land and the possible use of eminent domain to force landowners to hand over easements.

Any easements are permanent. The pipeline company can sell it at any time, to any entity, foreign or domestic. Eminent domain is to be used for “the public good,” yet these projects are proposed by private companies. These companies have investors that include foreign entities such as South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

The 45Q tax credits were recently increased approximately 70% with the Inflation Reduction Act. This will put billions of dollars in the investors’ pockets courtesy of you, the American taxpayer. These pipelines will carry highly pressurized toxic liquid CO2, in what is known as a “super critical state,” yet there are no federal regulations or safety guidelines.

The pipeline companies are refusing to do safety modeling and are putting the monkey squarely on the backs of our volunteer first responders. If they put an explosives factory 50 feet from your house, would you feel comfortable with that? These pipelines are extremely dangerous. So, it’s most definitely NOT the ethanol we’re against. Until these other issues are addressed, say no to the CO2 pipelines and ask your legislators to address these concerns.

Immigrants should be sent to work where needed

By Jeff Bergstrom

Charles City

With the governors of Texas and Florida sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. – with all of the jobs that employers are hungry to fill and workers that are badly needed in many companies throughout the United States and even Canada, why aren’t the Biden Administration and Congress sending these people to areas of the country to fill these jobs that nobody else seems to want to take?

These people will have to be trained, yes, to do certain jobs, but a lot of these people will stay at these jobs for a long time once they are trained because they are making a lot more money by far than where they came from, and their quality of life is better, also, than where they came from!

This way they become self-sustainable and eventually – fairly soon – they aren’t on the taxpayers’ welfare rolls. This also helps businesses get what they need in terms of the workforce, and it also keeps businesses going and not have to be short-handed or even shut down due to a lack of workers.

This way, you also use taxpayers’ money wisely and make a good productive use of it. Otherwise taxpayers have to feed, cloth, get housing and medical care for them! However, wages and benefits need to get better in this country so that workers can make a decent living and live a decent life if they work hard.

Also, Biden and Congress need to open the Keystone Pipeline to help get gas prices down as much as possible and get the border wall totally built between the U.S. and Mexico to slow the flow of migrants coming into this country, so that migrants have to come into this country legally and not illegally.

Border Patrol agents want the border wall done, so they can do their jobs better and let migrants come in legally.