Harry Reasoner moderating "Iowa 2000" questionnaire, Iowa, May 28, 1974

Speaker 1: ... of the possibilities and problems the future holds for Iowa. Before we join host, Harry Reasoner, we'd like to remind you that you can participate in the program. It's designed so that you can respond from your living room. Here's how. Questionnaires for you to fill out during the show are in today's Cedar Rapids Gazette and Des Moines Register. Take a minute now to find the questionnaires so that you can participate. If you don't have one, just use a blank sheet of paper. It'll do. This is your chance to have a say in the future of Iowa. So, gather the family around and help decide what we should do about critical issues like these and others during the coming years. Speaker 1: When your questionnaire is complete, send it to this address, Iowa 2000, Box 2000, Des Moines. We'll repeat the address at the conclusion of the program. Now, here's Harry Reasoner. Harry Reasoner: I'm Harry Reasoner, born in Dakota City, Iowa. When I last visited, the town seemed to have shrunk a little, but the land, the crops and the sky were as ample as I remembered them. There have been changes in Dakota City, as elsewhere in Iowa, and on the whole, people agree they have been changes for the good. Whether we owe it to good luck and hard work, or clever planning and some praying, Iowa, with its natural riches in the form of its land and its people has done well. Harry Reasoner: I'm here today to take part with you in a kind of survey of our options of the future. We have certain assets and advantages, and we're justly proud of them. Jointly with the rest of the nation and the world, we face certain problems. We are going to have to make some decisions that have not been made in the past. It used to be that people were so rare and the land so bountiful, each man could go his own way. More and more now, choices have to be made. Harry Reasoner: The energy crisis is not going to pass and leave things as they were before. Choices we make this year will have far reaching effects and repercussions on our environment, on the economy, on our lifestyle, on our health and wellbeing, and on the people that come after us. We have some hard decisions to face. Can we make the decisions in these coming years which will enable Iowans to look at their state in the year 2000 and agree that by and large the changes were for the good? Harry Reasoner: Beginning this month, there will be local meetings around the state of Iowa where citizens think together about the future of their state. These meetings are the first stage in the Governor's Conference on Iowa in the year 2000. Iowa 2000 is a bipartisan project originally suggested by U.S. Congressman, John Culver, who quoted Abraham Lincoln when he said, "If we could first know whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it." This is the purpose of Iowa 2000, to decide what kind of future we want for Iowa and how to go about achieving it. Harry Reasoner: Consider this program your invitation to join in. Later on we'll tell you how. It's your future. Help plan for it. Sue Knutson: I'm Sue Knutson from Cedar Rapids. A panel of 50 Iowans, a rough cross section of the state's population in age, sex, and walks of life are in the studio today and will answer the questions while you do. A scientifically selected and more accurately representative group of 600 Iowans was interviewed by the Iowa poll last month, and some of the same questions you will answer today were posed to them. As you answer the questions on this program, you will be able to compare your responses with state averages from the Iowa poll as well as with those of the studio audience. Harry Reasoner: Thank you, Sue. Now get ready the questionnaire that was published in your newspaper today, or if you don't have one a blank sheet of paper will do and see how you score in this exercise in grass roots democracy. Speaker 13: (Singing). Speaker 1: Iowa 2000 with Harry Reasoner and Sue Knutson. Speaker 3: I got married in '56 and moved to California for about three months and moved back. Speaker 4: Just over in the next section, just less than a mile away, my grandfather moved there in 1869, and he came over from Illinois in a covered wagon. Uncle John drove the cattle and he walked all the way. Speaker 5: Born and raised in Minnesota ... I shouldn't say raised in Minnesota, lived most of my adult life until we came to Iowa in the Chicago area. Still go back there every other month or so because I have family there, and I wouldn't move back there permanently for anything. We love Iowa. Harry Reasoner: We have resources, the people, the Iowans. What is it that is unique about growing up in Iowa? The first question is a values question. Harry Reasoner: A: What do you consider are some of the positive or good characteristics of Iowans? Harry Reasoner: B: What do you consider are some of the negative or bad characteristics of Iowans? Harry Reasoner: You may want to give this more thought later, but put down something for a start in each category now. Harry Reasoner: What will your memories of Iowa be at age 75? Those of us who are 49 now will be 75 when the new century rolls in and what we do or don't do now will very largely help furnish our memories. As we plan for Iowa's future, we must take into account our sizable older population, 12.4% of our total state population. How does this percentage compare with other states? Harry Reasoner: Question number 2: Where does Iowa rank among the 50 states in percentage of the population ages 65 or older? Harry Reasoner: 2nd, 10th, or 26th? Harry Reasoner: Number one is correct. Iowa's second after only Florida in the proportion of citizens aged 65 years or more. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that we have a predominantly old population. The people over 65 are balanced by the young people. The finite result is that Iowa has proportionately fewer people in the wage earning years. Speaker 6: I was born on an Iowa farm and spent much of my earlier life as a farm boy until I attended Iowa State. I was born and raised and named on a farm right near the east edge of the Ames, Iowa. Harry Reasoner: Question number 3: What percentage of Iowa's population do you think currently lives on farms? Harry Reasoner: Less than 25%, 25-50%, or over 50%? Harry Reasoner: Number one is correct. Less thank 25% of Iowans live on farms. A decreasing number of people, and with the help of scientific farming methods and mammoth and expensive modern machinery, been producing record crops of grain and livestock. Iowa's treasure is the soil, the rich black earth. Speaker 9: The farm we live on now we bought for $115 an acre and the crops came with it. I wouldn't sell it for $1,000 an acre. That's what land like this is selling for right now. Harry Reasoner: A particularly lucky combination of soil, rain and slope brings about land fertility. How much of this black treasure do we have in Iowa? Harry Reasoner: Question 4: What proportion of the nation's prime agricultural land is located in Iowa? Harry Reasoner: 1/4th, 1/6th, or 1/10th? Harry Reasoner: The correct answer is number one. 1/4th of the nation's prime food growing land is right here in Iowa. This land is good for growing crops and for raising livestock, for hogs, beef, corn and soybeans. This land helps make us the best fed nation in the world and helps our balance of payments abroad. Part science, part gamble, farming is a feeling in your bones. It's big business. It's sophisticated. It's mechanized and computerized. Large investments promise high profits. No wonder there have been reports of plans for huge corporate farm operations to move into agriculture and the food industry in the state. Harry Reasoner: Question 5 is do you think the size of corporate farms in Iowa should or should not be limited to help maintain the family farm? Harry Reasoner: Yes they should be limited, no they shouldn't, or no opinion? Sue Knutson: Friendly, ambitious, honest and level headed are the positive characteristics of Iowans most frequently cited to the Iowa poll. The studio audience agreed on the whole. Most people, 54%, had nothing bad to say about Iowans, but the remainder who did had comments like, "too conservative", "backwards", "apathetic", "selfish". The Iowa poll doesn't ask this question, but 58% of the studio audience knew that Iowa ranks second in the nation in its percentage of older citizens. Sue Knutson: If you had the right answer, give yourself six points. 51% of people questioned by the Iowa poll knew that less than 25% of Iowans live on farms, 58% of the studio audience scored six points for the correct answer. Give yourself six points if you knew this one. Sue Knutson: Only 42% knew that 1/4th of the nation's prime agricultural land is in Iowa. 49% of the foreign population knew it, 66% of the studio audience scored six points for the correct answer. Sue Knutson: 70% of Iowans think that corporate farm size should be limited, 18% think it should not, 12% had no opinion. The people in the studio here today, as you just saw, voted in close agreement with the Iowa poll findings. Harry Reasoner: Clearly, agriculture is a major factor in Iowa's economy and the land which supports this is an irreplaceable resource. What are we doing to conserve and maintain it? Not enough, the conservationists say. Harry Reasoner: Question 6 then: What do you think is the greatest source of pollution in Iowa? Industry, household waste, or farming? Harry Reasoner: The answer is farming. All the agricultural methods cause by far the greatest amount of all pollution in Iowa. Organic wastes and nitrogen compounds from excessive fertilizer applications wash into streams and cause water pollution. Improper tilling methods bring about the loss of an average of 13 tons of soil per acre per year on sloping land around the state, and in some steep slopes in the western part of Iowa, they lose as much as 40 tons of topsoil per acre per year. This soil not only pollutes the water and clogs up the Mississippi down to New Orleans, but is forever lost to Iowa for raising food. Much of Iowa's farmland has such deep layers of topsoil that even with so much annual erosion, farmers often continue to harvest almost undiminished crops, but time is running out. How much longer can we afford to wash away so much of our heritage? With proper contouring and terracing, the loss in soil could be cut down to well under five tons per acre. Harry Reasoner: Question 7: Do you think that by the year 2000 farmers should be required by law to use soil conservation practices or should this remain a voluntary decision of the individual farmer? Harry Reasoner: Required by law, voluntary, or no opinion? Harry Reasoner: This is a program about Iowa, where we are and where we're heading. If you've just tuned in, stay to think with us about Iowa 2000. To help understand the effect animal feed lot waste can have when released into the water system, consider the organic waste produced by Iowa's livestock. Harry Reasoner: Question 8: The organic waste of eight million cattle and 15 million hogs adds up to the organic waste of how many million humans? Harry Reasoner: 55 million, 135 million, or 185 million? Harry Reasoner: The correct answer is number 3, 185 million humans. Potent evidence surely that the disposal of feed lot waste, somewhat along the lines of prototype operations already being tried, is a necessity. The cattle here with their hooves push the organic waste through these cracks. The channels under the cracks empty into a drain where water flushes through the whole thing once every three hours. The water's not released into the general supply, but is returned into a lagoon and constantly recycled. Eventually, the sediment on the bottom is used for fertilizer. Now, we know how much livestock we have, Iowa's human population is currently 2.8 million, just short of 3 million. Speaker 10: I certainly don't think we need to try for a larger population if we're talking about increasing family size or increasing the birth rate. Speaker 11: I like Iowa the way it is now. I think it isn't growing extremely fast like other areas of the country. Speaker 12: I always thought that the greatest export of Iowa was its young people. Harry Reasoner: Question 9: Which one of the following population levels do you think will be most desirable for Iowa by the year 2000? Harry Reasoner: 2 million, 3 million, 4 million, or no opinion? Harry Reasoner: If we assume that social, economic and other conditions effecting the birth rate continue as in the past, and with the energy problems we have now that's a big if, if we assume that for the moment [inaudible] that Iowa's population continues its present modest growth rate to the year 2000. Under those circumstances, Iowa would have a population of 3.1 million in the year 2000. Sue Knutson: The population total doesn't tell the whole story. People moved to where there were jobs for them. Because eastern Iowa is under the influence of the Chicago trade area and since industry attracts more industry, much of Iowa's industrial growth is likely to take place in the East central part of the state. Counties surrounding Davenport, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Dubuque would probably have a 34% average growth in population by 2000. The Davenport area would experience the greatest population growth, about 52%, while the others increase about 30%. The remainder of the state, the South and the West, would probably decline in population by around 20% with the Creston area losing more, and the Burlington area remaining about the same. Iowa's cities and metropolitan populations would increase, while small towns of 1500 or less in rural areas would be drained so the services there, left to be supported by a shrinking population, would deteriorate sadly. Sue Knutson: Evermore school districts would be faced with a specter of consolidation, relentlessly. Small town businessmen would be squeezed between higher wage needs for themselves and their employees, and a declining number of customers. Sue Knutson: In order to slow down the movement of population away from small towns, would you favor or oppose granting tax advantages and government subsidies to companies which would locate in Iowa's small towns? Sue Knutson: Favor, oppose, no opinion? Sue Knutson: Have you made up your mind? This is how the panel voted. Here is a map with counties which have the highest proportions of that prime agricultural soil darkened. Polk County is right here and the quality of its land is irreplaceable. About 1300 acres of Polk County is removed from agricultural production each year. If this constant rate of urbanization should continue until the year 2000, over 1/4th of the total area of Polk County would be urbanized. Similarly, [inaudible] in Scott, though soil quality is slightly lower in these. Harry Reasoner: Industry and jobs, Sue just said it a little while ago. For a long time now, we have taken it as an article of faith that more industry spells prosperity and a higher standard of living. Will that be so in the future, or will a higher standard of living concern itself with fresh air, and clear streams, and rivers, or are we going to have to come up against a crisis in supply before we consider recycling metal, glass and other materials? Speaker 2: We'd have to attract more industry and I think we should work aggressively to bring in new industries. Speaker 14: I think we'd need to take a look at our environment more and stuff, and how we fit into that environment and make more intelligent decisions. Harry Reasoner: Question 11: By the year 2000, would you like to see more industry, less industry, or about the same amount of industry located in Iowa? Harry Reasoner: More, less, about the same, or no opinion? Choose your response. Harry Reasoner: This is how the studio audience voted. Harry Reasoner: Iowa is an Indian word meaning beautiful land. We have found it to be so. We have tilled it and build on it, lived on it and developed it, or exploited it according to our individual needs. If we continue to do that, there are plenty of indications of what will be left by the turn of the century. Speaker 15: I hope I'm here to find out. Speaker 16: By then, his corn fields are going to be filled up with shopping centers and houses, apartments and so forth. Speaker 17: And it seems like that we will be a card with holes in it. Speaker 18: All of a sudden, you just sit home and grow old, you know. Speaker 19: You know I can't imagine seeing that as part of the future. Speaker 20: I'm not too sure I want to be around in 2000 myself. Speaker 21: Honestly, I couldn't bear. Wish I could be a June Dixon. Speaker22: A lot of concrete and a lot of building. Harry Reasoner: Who decides how land is to be used for the long range interests of a state? In 1967, just 6 of the 99 counties had zoning ordinances. Harry Reasoner: Question 12: How many counties have now either adopted or are considering adopting county zoning laws? Harry Reasoner: 50, 77, or 99? Harry Reasoner: Number 2 is correct. 77 counties are concerned about zoning, which reflects the growing concern among many Iowans for our irreplaceable resources, and raises the question whether, even with county zoning, there's enough coordination in planning. Speaker23: We don't like zoning laws, but at the same time, I think we do have to have them. Speaker24: I think the zoning function must represent everybody's viewpoint. I think it has to reflect everybody's thinking. Speaker25: I use the best plan available for crop production. Speaker26: I think the county needs to try to attract industry at a pace with which we can deal. Harry Reasoner: Question 13: By the year 2000, do you think there should be statewide land use planning laws to allocate land to farming, housing, commercial and industrial development, or should each land owner have the right to decide the best use of his land? Harry Reasoner: There should be laws, the land owner's decision should be final, no opinion? Harry Reasoner: We are now into Winter in an energy crisis which is beginning to affect us all, and it's beginning to throw a shadow across the future. Harry Reasoner: Question 14: How do you view the nation's energy situation by the year 2000? Do you think the problems of energy and fuel shortages will be solved by then or not? Harry Reasoner: Yes, solved. Two: No, not solved, or no opinion? Harry Reasoner: We consulted Dr. Sam Tuthill, a state geologist, to get his thoughts on this question. Dr. Sam Tuthill: It's really impossible to say where we will be as a nation and a state, and as a people of the Earth respecting our use of energy, and our supply of energy in the year 2000. I think it's fruitless to think that the energy crisis that we know this Winter is a genuine physical crisis. 6% of the world's population is using 33% of the world's energy production. We are not a energy poor nation. However, we have not developed an energy use ethic, and we have not been called upon to really until this Winter. What the public decides to ask energy to do for it will determine where we are in the year 2000. Sue Knutson: 69% of people chose industry as the greatest cause of pollution in Iowa, 74% of farmers blamed industry for the [inaudible] of pollution. Only 9% of the population knew that farming is the greatest source of pollution, but 36% of the studio audience scored six points. The right answer: farming. 58% of Iowans, and even more farmers, 65%, think soil conservation practices should be voluntary. Only 34% of the public said that soil conservation should be required by law, but 80% of the studio audience were for mandatory soil conservation. Sue Knutson: As we saw, most of the studio audience underestimated the amount of organic waste of our livestock. Only 16% knew or guessed correctly that Iowa's livestock produces the equivalent in organic waste of 185 million people. Give yourself six points if you knew this one. Sue Knutson: Most Iowans, 60%, think our present population level of almost 3 million is most desirable for the year 2000. 25% think it should rise to 4 million. Only 8% want it to sink to 2 million. Men prefer growth. Women prefer the status quo as it concerns population. There was a 10% difference between men and women on this question. Sue Knutson: A majority, 55%, felt there should be tax advantage to industry for locating in small towns. 68% of the studio audience felt that way. 52% of Iowa citizens would like to see more industry located in Iowa. Only 36% of the farm population feel that way. 41% of people would like to see things stay just about the same with regard to industry, and 56% of farmers want to keep it the same. 38% of the studio audience scored five points for the correct answer to the question of zoning laws. Give yourself five points if you said 77 counties have adopted or are considering adopting county zoning laws. Land use planning laws, most people are against them, but 54% of the studio audience are for them. An overwhelming 72% of people think our energy problems will be resolved by the year 2000. 18% thought the contrary, but people in the studio here today, as you saw, agreed. Harry Reasoner: Well, Iowa's energy situation cannot really be separated from that of the world and the nation as a whole. We have a question to help orient us about it. Harry Reasoner: Question 15: Of the fossil fuels, Iowa produces its own natural gas, oil, coal? Harry Reasoner: Well, Iowa has no oil and no oil refineries, and all of our gasoline and petroleum distallent needs are brought in by barge or pipeline. 40% of Iowa's needs are presently supplied by petroleum products. Pipelines from the Southwest bring in Iowa's natural gas supplies. Here's a compressor station where gas pressure is given a boost, and the gas flow routed in a number of directions. Gas supplies 42% of our energy needs, a higher proportion than the nations. Apart from heating 2/3rds of Iowa's homes, natural gas is used commercially, industrially, in generating electricity, and for agricultural uses such as producing hydrogen fertilizer. Dr. Sam Tuthill: If we project the present use of a present growth in demand for natural gas and petroleum, we're looking only at several decades of supplies in continental US. Harry Reasoner: This car train from Wyoming is bringing in low sulfur coal. As the train goes through the station, each carriage opens at the bottom and dumps its load. The coal is carried by conveyor belt over to the coal pile. In burning coal, we combine our local high sulfur coal with this imported low sulfur coal. Together, coal accounts for about 16% of our energy needs. If in answering question 15, you said Iowa produces its own coal, give yourself just one point. The answer scoring five points is no on all three counts. Here is Dr. Tuthill on Iowa's coal situation. Dr. Sam Tuthill: We have approximately 7 billion tons of known reserve of coal in the state of Iowa. The projected possible reserve runs in the order of 21 billion tons. Now that's enough energy to fire the sun for 10 microseconds, which is a very short time, but a very, very great amount of energy. The main difficulty to the use of coal of course is its environmental impact. It's a high sulfur coal. It has other products, such as Mercury and Zinc in it. Dr. Sam Tuthill: Now on the one hand, this is a problem in the use of coal, but also it's an opportunity. [inaudible] perhaps enough Zinc and Mercury and sulfides in coal to mine it for those products alone, and have the coal energy as a byproduct. We are just beginning to look at the research necessary to use coal in an environmentally acceptable way, and to extract it from the ground in a way that does not destroy the land. Harry Reasoner: We didn't get a chance to interrupt Dr. Tuthill, but check after the interview, 10 microseconds of firing the sun is equivalent to continuing our total energy consumption in Iowa at the present rate for 470 years. Here we are at a strip mining operation Okaloosa. Most of Iowa's coal is deposited in such a way that strip mining is the way to harvest it. We have all to often seen exhausted land like this, ravaging the landscape and causing pollution with its tower water runoff, but this land has also had its coal removed by strip mining, and was then reclaimed to be used for pasture land, or a variety of purposes. Harry Reasoner: Question 16: Should land reclamation after strip mining be mandatory in spite of raising the price of coal, or should each mining company continue to determine its own policies? Harry Reasoner: There should be mandatory reclamation, a company decision, or no opinion? Harry Reasoner: We're still discussing those 470 years worth of energy that we have in coal supplies. Supposing we reclaim the land after mining it, we would have the bonus of mining valuable metals like Mercury and Zinc along with it, but the coal has a high sulfur content. This means that when the coal burns, it omits sulfuric acid fumes, which are very unhealthy to breathe. Dr. Sam Tuthill: I think primarily what Iowa has offer is what many Americans now are looking for and what they have not found in their bigger cities, and that is number 1: open space, number 2: cleaner air. Harry Reasoner: Iowa's blessed in getting its fresh air from the great plains, so that the state has generally good air. Some people advocate relaxing standards to allow us to burn more coal, but after we've finished with it, our air travels East and any pollutant we add to it compounds problems there. Harry Reasoner: Question 17: Do you think more air pollution should be permitted in Iowa, or should high air quality standards be maintained? Harry Reasoner: Allow more pollution, maintain air quality, no opinion? Harry Reasoner: Cool gasification is a way coal could be used without harmful side effects. Dr. Tuthill. Dr. Sam Tuthill: Coal has an occasion as one of the most promising ways in which we can use coal in an environmentally acceptable way. By gasification of coal are two types of gasification possible. 1: to produce pipeline gas of Methane quality or about a thousand BTU per cubic foot. The other method for which the technology has been well known and has been practiced for many years is industrial gas production from coal, water gas production. This is about a 500 BTU per pound, or per cubic foot, gas. This could be used to generate electricity. The harmful materials that come out of combustion products could be extracted, and the energy translated to use through electricity. Pro regions by in large produce very low quality water. The water contains materials such as Epson salts. It is very, very deleterious to the health of animals and people. Some of the regions that are underlain by coal in our state, the communities are required to utilize water that has five times the recommended total dissolve solid standard for domestic use. Dr. Sam Tuthill: There is an opportunity ahead, I think, if we could see pipelining water out of the Missouri valley, the great deal of water underneath the gravels on the flood plain of the Missouri River, lifting it a little over 400 feet, allowing it to flow down into central [inaudible] provide the water for coal gasification because 20,000 gallons per minute is required ...