Gov. Kim Reynolds

Gov. Kim Reynolds, who hails from Madison County, has been serving as Iowa’s governor since 2017. In that time, she has been an advocate for agriculture and the state’s many small rural communities.

She has been a large proponent of maintaining and expanding export opportunities for Iowa’s pork producers. Reynolds has led economic development trade missions to China, Germany, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand. Several of those countries are currently large consumers of U.S. pork, while others are beginning to buy more from Iowa pork producers—thanks, in part, to her efforts.

In 2020, Reynolds worked alongside Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley to have former President Donald Trump’s administration include meat processing plants in the Defense Production Act. This effort saved many Iowa farms and kept food on the tables of Americans when store shelves started to turn bare. She also continued to work to provide reasonable protection for workers inside the packing plants, as well as on the farm.

Today, Reynolds is still working to provide a strong infrastructure for the pork industry. This includes the new Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Iowa State University in Ames. Her support of that project will continue to promote day-to-day animal welfare and husbandry while looking down the road for foreign animal disease prevention and preparedness.

No matter the challenge facing Iowa pork producers, Reynolds has their backs and doesn’t stop until the job is done—much like those working on the farm.