Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is planning to meet with groups around the state to tout ideas that offer farmers different income streams and keep more people in rural Iowa. Vilsack’s first stop was Tuesday afternoon in rural Warren County.
“Happy to talk about other issues if you want to, but I wanted to make sure I had a chance to talk about this alternative, because I’m excited about it,” Vilsack said. “…I hope that you can see the benefit of it.”
Vilsack, who served a dozen years as the nation’s secretary of agriculture, said the tax code should remove the steep financial penalty that prevents young farmers from acquiring land from older relatives. And he said incentives from the government and the private sector should support small and medium sized farmers who do things like plant diverse crops, install solar panels to generate electricity to sell to a utility, or convert manure into methane.
“But it doesn’t just have to happen at the federal level, it could happen at the state level, it could happen at the local level, it could happen with philanthropic investment because when you generate opportunity like this, you’re not only generating more income for farmers, but you’re also creating supply chains and those supply chains have jobs connected to them,” Vilsack said. “And those jobs, by the very nature of them, will be in rural places.”
About two dozen people attended the event, organized by the Iowa Democratic Party. Vilsack told reporters he’s ready to have more events like it around the state. “As many as it takes to have people understand that there’s an option and that there’s an opportunity for a real debate and conversation about the future of rural places and for small and midsized farming operations,” Vilsack said. “It doesn’t have to be ‘get big or get out.'”
Vilsack served two terms as governor and, during an interview with Radio Iowa and The Des Moines Register, Vilsack said he is not running for governor, but as the 2026 campaign begins, Vilsack indicated he wants to outline a set of rural issues that merits consideration.
“From my perspective all too frequently we have campaigns that are about telling people what they already think or what they already support or what they already know,” Vilsack said, “as opposed to saying here’s where we are, here’s where we should be or we need to be and, as a leader, I want to take you there.”
Vilsack said Governor Reynolds decision not to seek a third term is creating “new energy” — in both parties. “We now have two parties, two candidates who will tell how they’re going to lead us,” Vilsack said. “Where are they going to take us? What are they going to do to get us to a better place? How do they define that better place? That is a great opportunity for the state and it’s a great opportunity for every candidate to be creative, to be bold in their concepts and ideas.”
Vilsack noted that when he announced in 2006 that he wouldn’t seek a third term as governor, that opened up opportunities for others in both parties to compete for governor and other elected offices.