This week, at the Iowa State Fair, I visited with a person from the Iowa Soybean Association. You see, for years, we've been buying Edamame, for our parrot. She loves them. Then one day we put some in a salad and found out why Kizzy treats it like "Birdy-Crack". It is great.
However, every package of frozen Edamame I buy has stamped on it, "Product of China".
What the heck?
We're Iowa. We grow the best soybeans in the world. Heck, the soil here is so fertile that you can pound a stick in the dirt and it'll grow. So...why not grow Edamame in Iowa?
We can...but we have nowhere to process it. My new friend from the Iowa Soybean Association tells me that a recent harvest of just one acre of Edamame yielded $43,000 worth of product. That is why Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and his people are working on finding a way to help Iowa Farmers produce and then process the product.
Let's hope they get this done...Kizzy would like it...too.
It's Iowa, It's Rural...It's Highway 6 - Thanks for coming by!
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