Opinion : Who knew? I sure didn't!

It's always like Christmas opening the email "box." You never know what kind of junk mail you'll get, or the things that make me ask, "How didn't I know that?" It was the latter tonight.

There was an update from Ashley Hinson's office, which normally I say, "Yeah, yeah," and then I hit delete. For a couple of reasons. I figure it's all blah, blah, blah about how good we are and how bad the other guys are, and I'm so over it. This time for some reason I stopped and read it. A line caught my eye.

"Ten years ago, Chinese spies were caught digging up seeds out of the ground in Dysart to reverse engineer in China." Wait what? How did I miss that story? Or did I know and forget it? I don't think so. The visual of that sentence I think would have stuck with me. So rural Iowa is on China's radar.

I used the Google machine to bring up a story from last year on Newsweek, and sure enough, Iowa Farmers Accuse China of Stealing American Seeds - Newsweek. The story says that the FBI caught up to them.

Hinson goes on to say, "Since then, Communist China has been buying up our farmland land, working to dominate the food supply chain, and stealing our agriculture technology innovation - all while distorting the market with unfair trade practices. The House Farm Bill includes several provisions to protect our food and ag supply chains from the influence of foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party. I will continue working to protect our food security and national security from Communist China."

That's probably not a bad idea. I just never thought I'd picture a guy from China digging up seeds in an Iowa cornfield. But I guess when there are knock-off designer clothes and handbags, why not food. In light of the last few years, I'd be more concerned with other countries trying to figure out how to design a disease to take advantage of our crops and damage them...yes I'm thinking of the Wuhan lab.

So anyway, if you see a man standing in a field, that's not in overalls or his blue jeans, it just might be a guy from China looking for some good ol' American seeds to snitch.

Who knew? Probably the local farmers...