As waterfowl move through, avian flu again floats to the fore. Dr. James Roth, recently retired dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University, reminded us with a 2024 essay he co-authored with associate Jane Galyon on the several threats to food security posed by climate change, disease and human population growth. African swine fever. Ebola. The Nipah virus, which leads to encephalitis. Scary stuff.
They raise the essential question: How is the world supposed to feed 10 billion people?
“Fortunately, concerns about worldwide food security are occurring at the same time as rapid advances in nearly all aspects of science, which can be applied to sustainably increase food production both locally and globally. There must be a collective will to apply science to solve current problems and to prepare for future challenges. This challenge mandates the need for the medical, veterinary, public health, agriculture, and environmental communities to work together locally and internationally to protect human health, animal health, plant health, food safety, food security, and the environment,” the essay says.
“Cutting-edge science is needed to improve food animal production and pathogen control. This requires an interdisciplinary one-world, one-health approach led by international organizations and funded by the developed world. An optimal response will involve scientists and policy experts from government, the private sector, and universities worldwide. Strengthening all nations' public health infrastructure and veterinary services is essential to this aim.”
Pray that sound minds will prevail. This is not the direction we are heading. Vaccines are called into doubt by addled Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The Trump Administration gutted the workforce charged with monitoring avian flu in Ames. The federal government continues to try to force academic research to heel. The United States is alienating its research collaborators worldwide. Science is served cafeteria-style, pick and choose, while disease morphs and spreads from hen to hog to human.
We need more research but have funded less over the past 20 years into animal disease. Vaccinations are avoided so as not to hamper meat trade. Hack politicians in statehouses intimidate academic scientists and their universities.
Voices of reason are out there if we heed them. We can feed the world if we are smart about it. That is not the route we are treading. We are attacking our scientific infrastructure when we need to be building it furiously. A high-protein diet will not stave off measles. Prayer does not move mosquitos. Sound science does.
Iowa State University welcomes an alumnus home as new president just as the Cyclone Athletics Department is caught in the vortex of change. Dr. David Cook has been president at North Dakota State University, a land-grant university like ISU where he addressed financial challenges. Iowa State faces an athletics deficit of roughly $25 million per year in large part because of the transition to professional sports and rapid changes to conference structures.
Football Coach Matt Campbell left for more action at Penn State, and then most of the team bailed. Superstar Audi Crooks of Algona joined several teammates in the transfer portal. Gymnastics folded. Renovations at the Iowa State Center are on hold. Athletic Director Jamie Pollard had to issue a statement saying that men’s basketball Coach TJ Otzelberger isn’t going anywhere. As Johnny Orr would say: Hoo-boy, coach!
This will require presidential attention, along with many other challenges faced by higher education in Iowa. Cook will have to determine if the right people are in place with the right strategy. Campbell determined that we don’t have the capacity to compete at the highest level in football. When you lose your women’s team after an NCAA tourney appearance with an All-American, something is wrong in Hilton Coliseum. Fans are confused and alarmed.
These issues will immediately test Cook’s mettle, convincing the legislature to support higher education when the athletic department does not appear able to manage its affairs. Cook understands Iowa State and its base: conservative, pragmatic and focused on results. He will not have much time to ponder. Hard decisions are on the table.
Randy Feenstra should be sweating the big crowds Zach Lahn is attracting in the race for the Republican nomination for governor. Feenstra has the institutional support but Lahn is running a self-funded campaign with strongly populist messaging. “I’m tired of my people getting cancer. I’m tired of our schools being bad. I’m tired of Iowans leaving our state. It’s time for truth. That’s what it’s time for, no matter what the cost,” Lahn says.
True or not, Lahn is good at TV and social media and painting a good picture. He had a large crowd in Grimes last week. Feenstra and Lahn are among a field of five for the GOP nomination. Lahn wants to break up Big Ag and Big Pharma. He wants Iowans on the land. Powerful stuff among the libertarian wing. He worked for the Koch Brothers. He runs a home-schooling business.
Feenstra has been quieter but is doing a lot of small events. His inane TV ads hate on immigration, which is a federal issue. He is a congressman, he has a lot of money and name recognition. The other candidates are fighting among themselves while Feenstra tries to ignore them.
Lahn is the sleeper. He says he will be all over the place before the June primary. His support is building. Will he be able to get there in a couple months? The nomination could go to a state convention this summer if no candidate gets 35% of the primary vote. Adam Steen has the support of Bob Vander Plaats and the Family Leader religious right-wingers, which could be important at a convention.
Lahn should have the attention of Democrat Rob Sand, who also is trying to run as if he were an independent. Sand would have a better go against any other candidate. Lahn hasn’t spelled out an education agenda, Sand has. Lahn endorses the tax cuts and vouchers that undermine public education. If people are truly listening, that is probably where things get decided. Gov. Reynolds talks about great schools while tightening the corset. Voters may have had enough of that foolishness.
SENATE REPUBLICANS ANNOUNCED that they will target Iowa with $29 million in ad spending on the campaign to hold Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat for the GOP. Ernst is retiring. Rep. Ashley Hinson leads Jim Carlin in the primary race. Democrats Josh Turek and Zach Wahls are running for the Democratic nomination.
The Republicans are targeting Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Maine and Alaska as holds; and has aims to flip seats in Michigan, Georgia and New Hampshire.
Likely, Hinson will have a huge amount of cash and could enjoy nearly an incumbent’s advantage. Major spending on the Senate race will leak into other campaigns, like the race for governor. Republicans are determined to hang on to Iowa. With a strong voter registration advantage, it is theirs to lose. President Trump is doing all he can to frustrate his own party’s ambitions in Iowa.
ASHLEY WOLFTORNABANE of Storm Lake is doing all she can to make the rounds of the Fourth District as she seeks the Democratic nomination for congress. She is running in the June primary against two other candidates, Dave Dawson and Stephanie Steiner. She seems to show up everywhere, and is all over social media. It is impossible to know how things will turn out, but she is certainly putting in the effort. This district is deep red. Chris McGowan of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce is the likely Republican nominee and heir apparent to Feenstra. Surprises happen. Berkley Bedell beat incumbent Rep. Wiley Mayne in 1974, post-Watergate. He was everywhere, too. Kansas elected a gay kickboxer to Congress. These are odd times. Give the hometown hero a gold star for putting herself out there against the odds.
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