Iowa Public Radio
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced the latest round of funding for urban water quality projects in front of the Jordan House Museum in West Des Moines in April 2025. “This is where stormwater infrastructure meets water quality improvements," he said.
Naig's Democratic opponent, however, believes this is the wrong approach. [...] “These farmers might be industrious and they might be ingenious and all these other adjectives you want to say about it, but the truth is, a lot of them are millionaires; they’re really wealthy guys. They’re making three times as much as the average Iowan. And a lot of this grain farming now, it’s not that hard. They’re only working a few weeks out of the year. And so why are we continuously asked to subsidize and indemnify this activity and then to pay to remediate the pollution?” [...] Naig also criticized Jones for “unflattering things” he has said about farmers.
“These are quotes: ‘Farmers are a bunch of rich old white guys. Farming's not all that difficult. Farmers really only work a couple weeks a year,’” Naig said.
Following the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair, Jones said his quotes have been taken out of context. At The Gazette's Iowa Ideas 2021 conference, Jones said:
