NOTEBOOK: Marriott makes some noise for Gov. Branstad
PERRY BEEMAN Oct 21, 2016 | 11:00 am
1 min read time
206 wordsBusiness Record Insider, The Insider NotebookYou could say the downtown Marriott made some noise for Gov. Terry Branstad when he spoke at the Iowa Food Leadership Reception Oct. 12, a side event of the World Food Prize. “Someone pulled the fire alarm, so the alarm was going off the whole time,” Branstad told me at a breakfast meeting the next morning. “The organizers (Cultivation Corridor, Iowa State University and business groups) wanted to stay on schedule, so they told me to keep talking and I did my best. I’ve had many disruptions over the years, but none quite like this.” Perhaps that’s why the governor sounded a little hoarse the next day. As he chatted with audience members at a World Food Prize breakfast at Terrace Hill on Oct. 13, Branstad offered his thoughts on several other matters:
— He marvels that farms in his home area in northern Iowa are looking at corn yields as high as 269 bushels an acre; he recalls 40-bushel yields when he was a kid.
— He thinks the GOP stands a better chance in local elections than in Congress this year.
— He wonders why there is so much opposition to genetically modified crops. “I don’t know how anyone can be against genetic technology.”