Rob Sand confronts industrial ag and water quality issues at Newton town hall

Rob Sand thought he had answered an Iowa woman’s question about holding industrial agriculture accountable for nitrate pollution throughout the state and if he could make hard decisions that could impact his family, whose businesses could be adversely affected. But about three questions later he realized he didn’t.

So, before he called on anyone else, the Democratic candidate for governor took a moment to go back and give her and everyone else at the Newton town hall a full answer. Sand acknowledged that while he did address the family part, he did not respond to parts about water quality and agriculture.

“I don’t know whether you’re going to like my answer. Here’s my answer: It’s not an area today that I feel really comfortable with the facts on that I can have a strong opinion on,” Sand said. “But I want to hear from people like you and I’m going to listen to people from all walks of life in Iowa.”

Sand added when people are listened to they can live with solutions where nobody gets everything they want but everybody gets something they want.

“We have a political system where people don’t listen,” Sand said. “And as I was sitting here, because I listened to your question, I realized I don’t want you to walk away from here being like, ‘He kind of dodged my question. He sort of answered the last part but he didn’t answer the first part.’

“I don’t want you to think that’s my approach.”

As a born-and-raised Iowan who grew up trout fishing in northeast Iowa, Sand wants others to enjoy those same kinds of activities he did. It is the birthright of every Iowan, he said. More farmers want to participate in conservation programs, Sand said, but there is not enough money dedicated to fulfilling those requests.

Many at the town hall agreed, including an audience member who identified himself as a commissioner of the Jasper County Soil and Water Conservation District. He noted there are also not enough people to implement, engineer and facilitate these conservation programs.

“I do think that growers and farmers want to do more. But oftentimes we aren’t allocating resources to it,” Sand said. “If you have not enough people to do it but people are ready to say, ‘Yup, come on my land and do this’ and we’re not giving them the resources to get it done, that’s a problem and it’s also frustrating.”

Sand told participants in the Newton town hall on Aug. 6 that he is listening. Subsequent town halls that same day saw Iowans ask similar questions. And he provided a similar answer: He is listening and creating a plan to address water quality issues in the state.

“The heart of your question is: Do you have the guts to stand up to people? Well, I’ve certainly pissed off a lot really popular people in Des Moines over the years,” Sand said, adding that he refused to even provide the Democratic National Convention with “all the records of wrongdoing by Gov. Kim Reynolds.”

Regarding his family’s ties to the agriculture industry, Sand prefaced that a lot of misinformation has been shared about The Laurisden Group. His wife serves as CEO. The Laurisden family has also donated millions of dollars to his campaigns. Some have donated to Republicans like Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Sand agreed that The Laurisden Group’s companies do have ties to agriculture. A few of the companies make soup stock and soup product. Others make pet food or immune system supplements that get fed to baby pigs. Sand said the bottom line is he is going to do what is right.

He also acknowledged that his in-laws have given him a lot of support in all of his campaigns, but he also wanted to note the grassroots support as well. His in-laws, he added, are decent people who are “very frustrated with the direction of the State of Iowa in a way they haven’t been for a long time.”