Democrat Chris Jones, who is running for Iowa secretary of agriculture, was rebuked by Iowa Republicans after saying farmers are “wealthy,” grain farming is “not that hard,” and farmers are “only working a few weeks out of the year.”
The remarks were highlighted Tuesday by Iowa Field Report, which posted video from a 2021 interview Jones gave at the Iowa Ideas Conference, hosted by the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
“And a lot of this grain farming now, it’s not that hard. They’re only working a few weeks out of the year,” Jones said.
“These farmers might be industrious and they might be ingenious and you know all these other adjectives you want to say about it, but the truth is, you know, a lot of them are millionaires,” Jones continued. “They’re really wealthy guys. They’re making three times as much as the average Iowan, and a lot of this grain farming now-it’s not that hard. They’re only working a few weeks out of the year.”
Iowa Field Report said that earlier in the same interview, Jones claimed Iowa farmers are all “wealthy, older white guys.”
Incumbent Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, whom Jones is seeking to unseat, denounced the remarks.
Hellbound and Down 