I met Bill Northey in an elevator.
We were in Des Moines, and I had just been elected to the board of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. I was headed to my first meeting. He was the president.
As we rode upward, I encountered Bill’s big and welcoming personality. He was an amazing leader in agriculture who had the people skills of a retail politician and the vision of a statesman.
That was more than three decades ago, when we were a lot younger.
It’s hard to believe he’s gone. He died on February 5, at the age of 64.
We started out as fellow farmers. Then we became allies. Soon we were friends.
The whole time, I watched Bill rise—and joined him on a few adventures.
Born in 1959, he grew up on a family farm in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and attended Iowa State University. He might have spent his life planting and harvesting corn and soybeans, but nothing could contain his enthusiasm for agriculture or his leadership style.
His climb as a leader began in earnest around the time when I encountered him on the elevator. From the presidency of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, he moved up to the presidency of the National Corn Growers Association. Along the way, he served as head of the Dickinson County Farm Bureau, as a commissioner in the Dickinson County Soil and Water Conservation District, and more.
He seemed to be everywhere and do everything.
Our major collaboration began in the aftermath of the so-called “Battle in Seattle,” when trade ministers from around the globe gathered in 1999 at a conference of the World Trade Organization. They were greeted by mobs of anti-trade activists, whose threats and violence became bad enough that the governor of Washington state had to summon the National Guard.
Back in Iowa, Bill and I watched the mayhem and worried. We lived in the American heartland, but our livelihoods depended on foreign markets. We knew that we needed to respond with an organization that would give individual farmers a voice in the debates over exports and imports.
With three other Iowa farmers—Reg Clause, Bill Horan, and Craig Lang—we started Truth About Trade. Soon it became Truth About Trade and Technology because we recognized farmers also had to fight for their access to innovations such as GMOs.
Today, we are the Global Farmer Network, and it enjoys an international membership—but our core purpose of amplifying the voice of farmers on matters of trade and technology remains unchanged.
Bill was present at the creation, but he had to step away from the board because duty called: In 2006, he was elected to serve as Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture. Voters returned him to office in 2010 and 2014, with levels of support that approached 60 percent.
In 2018, he rose into the ranks of the federal government, becoming the country’s first Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
These were important jobs, but Bill didn’t let them swell his head. In the streets of Washington, he continued to drive his old pick-up truck. On weekend excursions, he explored the cities and towns of the eastern seaboard with his wife.
In each of these roles, Bill knew how to get things done—and I learned a lot from him. One of his best tips involved how to join conversations about agriculture in Washington, D.C.
Everyone wants to meet members of Congress, he said. That’s worth doing, but those meetings can be hard to schedule, last for only a handshake and a photo, and ultimately accomplish almost nothing.
The key, he insisted, was to meet the staffers who worked in the basements of office buildings. Knock on their doors, ask for a few minutes of their time, and develop real relationships with the folks who write the laws and regulations that govern food production.
It turns out that many of these people enjoy talking policy with the farmers whose lives they affect—and they’re eager to hear from us and learn what we think.
I might never have learned this if Bill had not showed me the way.
My favorite memory of him occurred in 2010, when we traveled to Japan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Yamanashi Hog Lift. In the aftermath of a destructive typhoon, Iowa farmers had responded by shipping the hogs that led to the rebirth of Japan’s hog industry.
On our trip, we marched in a parade, dressed as formal ancient Japanese Samurai. As Iowa’s agriculture secretary, Bill was the most honored guest: He wore armor, carried a sword, and rode a horse as a general. I and the other Iowans dressed in armor, walked beside him as his guards.
Bill knew that he was strengthening America’s relationship with another country. He was having the time of his life.
I’m thankful I could be a part of his journey.
Tim Burrack raises corn and soybeans on a NE Iowa family farm. He volunteers as a Board Member for the Global Farmer Network. www.globalfarmernetwork.org