Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey, and Deputy Secretary, Mike Naig, will be making a stop in Audubon County next week at the 75th anniversary dinner for the Audubon County Soil and Water Conservation District. They will be at the Exira Lions Club Monday as guest speakers for the program beginning at 7:15 p.m. Northey, who is a corn and soybean farmer from Spirit Lake, is serving a third term as Secretary of Agriculture. His nomination to serve as the Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation for the USDA has been blocked by Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Cruz, who is from oil rich Texas, is blocking Northey as retaliation for the success of several Midwestern legislators in convincing the EPA to drop proposed reductions in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) production levels, which was led by Iowa State Senators, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley.
