DES MOINES —Iowa Farmers Union elected a new state president.
Jana Linderman, of Cedar Rapids, was chosen during the Farmers Union annual convention earlier this month in Des Moines.
Linderman has been IFU managing director since 2012 and previously served four years on the IFU board of directors.
"I am so honored to have the opportunity to lead this amazing organization over the coming year," said Linderman. "I grew up as a member of the Farmers Union, going to youth classes, meetings and conventions with my parents and siblings. I feel privileged to take the strong history and nearly 100-year tradition of the Iowa Farmers Union and carry it forward to a new generation of family farmers and ranchers."
Linderman, an attorney who lives in Cedar Rapids with her husband and 2-year-old son, also is a beginning farmer who works with her parents on her family's farm.
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"We are at a transition point in agriculture," Linderman said. "So many of our farmers are quickly approaching retirement age without a farm transition plan, and more and more farmland is held by people who are not actively engaged in farming. It's an open question what the farming landscape will look like in 10 years or 20 years. The mission of IFU has to be giving our beginning farmers and ranchers every opportunity to be successful, so that a generation from now, we can look around and see vibrant rural communities and a landscape dotted with independently-owned working farms."
The convention also elected Sally Gran, of Nevada; Ashley Peppler, of Grinnell; Tony Thompson, of Elkhart; and Donna Winburn, of Grinnell, to serve on the IFU board of directors.
Rick Hartmann, of Minburn, was selected as a delegate to the 2014 National Farmers Union Convention in Santa Fe, N.M.
