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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- One man is concerned about Iowa’s food, and he wants to do something about it.

Francis Thicke, a farmer, scientist and educator, is running for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture.

Thicke and his wife own and operate their own dairy farm near Fairfield, Iowa, where they process the cows’ milk into bottled milk, cheese, and yogurt, which they market to grocery stores and restaurants in their community.

“We face some major challenges here in Iowa agriculture today and we're not really addressing some of those,” said Thicke. “We also have some good opportunities available for us that we're not taking advantage of. For example, we in Iowa eat about eight-billion dollars worth of food every year, but we import 80 - 90 percent of that food from outside of Iowa. So, that means that we're exporting our food dollars and we could grow a lot more of that food right here in Iowa.”

Thicke said staying local would mean healthier, more fresh and safe food, as well as more economic development for farmers and more money in local farmers’ pockets.

Thicke said Iowa agriculture is currently highly dependent upon cheap fossil fuel, but he said we are at the end of the “cheap fossil fuel era.”

“We should develop that next generation of energy systems, of on-farm wind power for example, and on-farm bio-fuel production to produce energy to power agriculture, and it should be structured so the profits stay in the pockets of the farmers and in the rural communities.”