(Submitted to NorthIowaToday.com by Darrell Lewis)
So Iowa Republican Governor Terry Branstad has only been in office a few weeks and already he is making plans for his first vacation to the exotic Far East. †PORK is what Branstad says this trip is really about. †Follow the dots: The Obama Administration is in the final negotiations of a trade agreement with South Korea, which according to reports will include an increase in US pork exports to South Korea from just over $200 million a year to almost $900 million. †Iowa as the largest Pork Producer in the nation will obviously benefit. †Much thanks for this goes to former Iowa Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack who is now Secretary of Agriculture. ††Not wanting to be left out of “who gets the credit” loop Branstad is already ginning up ways to claim his administration had something to do with this. †THEY DID NOT!!! So Governor “Porkie Barrel” is planning a trade mission to not only Korea but to also include China with lots of side trips to his favorite far east nations. †The really big pork in this is his proposal to also open a State of Iowa trade office in South Korea. †On the same day he says we don’t have enough money for early childhood education he says we have enough money to open a State office overseas. †So follow the dots a bit closer. †Iowa hog farmers will gain from this trade agreement with or without an Iowa office in Seoul; so just who is this office aimed at assisting? †Well of course, its going to help those impoverished Meat Packing Companies who just can’t afford to do their own marketing. †You know the names..,..Cargill, Armour, Hormel, Farmland, IBP, Oscar Meyer and of course Tyson the scourge of the corporate ag industries. †They all have Iowa plants, although there is no guarantee any of their new found gains would be spent in Iowa vs. the South where the love creating jobs rather then Iowa. |
