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OPINION
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley: As I tour Iowa s 99 counties, our state s ingenuity is alive and well
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley
Guest opinion columnist
For nearly 12 months and counting, COVID-19 has disrupted lives and livelihoods across America and the entire world. Here in Iowa, the breadbasket to the world, hardworking Iowans continue to do what we do best: get food from farm to fork, from one generation to the next.
As I continue my annual 99 county meetings, I’ve witnessed that no matter the setting or the audience, the economic wellbeing of Iowans is interconnected. A financial advisor in Waukee, a transportation logistics engineer in Ankeny and a soil scientist in Ames have a stake in Iowa’s farm economy. When Iowa farmers are doing well, local suppliers, lenders, landlords, Main Street businesses and the tax base are better off, as well.
Ames Tribune
Having the attention of Iowa s U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and state Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig offered an Ames business owner a sense Wednesday that his efforts have been legitimized.
Ray Schmidt, the owner of Farm Story Meats, somehow manages to run his business between working during the day at Iowa State University and taking classes toward a master s degree in business administration at night. I m not sure when I get all this done, but I do, he said.
Farm Story Meats partners with farms and meat lockers including one in Story City to let online customers select the bundle and cuts of meat they want and then have the food delivered to their doorstep. If the delivery is close enough, Schmidt drops it off himself.
Ames Tribune
What started as a quarantine project for Iowa State senior Danielle Youngblut blossomed into a sunflower business and became one of two Story County finalists for a statewide agriculture business award.
Youngblut s business, Gravel Road Sunflowers, and Iowa State alum and Ames resident Ray Schmidt s business, Farm Story Meats, qualified as finalists for the second annual Grow Your Future Award. The two both got their start as student entrepreneurs. It just brought a little bit more happiness to me, Youngblut said. It gave me a project that I could work on, it gave me goals that I could focus on and it also brought me a lot of people directly to my business that I interacted with and socialize with.