House Journal: Page 42: Tuesday, January 11, 2000
1995. A Ragbrai connection took them to watch a wheelchair rugby match in Colorado.
Why, they wondered, couldn’t wheelchairs have the high-performance features of the
high-tech mountain bikes they rode? An idea was born. By this time, Mark had
followed his heart back to Iowa to marry Janet Comer, that he met on Ragbrai. The
business was begun in their living room. He and Dave created a high-tech shock
absorber for wheelchairs, shaped like a frog’s leg, hence the company name. Dave
Kaufman, a native Iowan living in Las Vegas, moved back to become the director of
marketing.
Now in their third year of business in Vinton, Iowa, Frog Legs sells worldwide
and has 10 employees. Quality air, water and open spaces was Iowa’s promise to
Dave, Mark and Dave. Welcome home to Iowa.
It can be difficult to know when you are standing at the beginning of a scientific
revolution. When John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry put together the world’s first
digital computer in Ames in 1939, it was doubtful that they knew. Likewise, the
scientists and business people around this state who are entering a golden age of
discovery in agricultural research probably can’t realize the future ramifications of
their work. But as I travel to the biocatasis laboratory in Iowa City, and hear the plans
for the new Plant Sciences Center at Iowa State University, and see the new, leading-
edge companies that use plants and animals for products ranging from fuels, fibers, to
pharmacy products, I can sense that Iowa is uniquely poised to become the epicenter of
a new world food economy.
Are we as a state going to rise to the challenge and become the food capital of the
world? It makes sense for us to do so. We have the infrastructure, the knowledge and
the history of agricultural innovation.
Let us continue our quest to be the world’s food capital for leadership and greatness
in this scientific revolution by increasing funding for the Plant Science Center at Iowa
State University, and by improving the biology program at the University of Iowa and
the biology instruction program at the University of Northern Iowa.
Working with John Pappajohn and our Department of Economic Development, we
have identified the nation’s best practices for venture capital. We present that to you as
well. Let us, working together, create a climate where entrepreneurs can grow their
dreams as easily as we grow our corn and beans.
In doing so, let us create the opportunity to convert the 60% of the raw commodities
grown in our state to value-added products, such as ethanol. Let us, working together,
figure a way to become the nation’s leader in ethanol.
Value-added agriculture, changing commodities to ingredients, is the key to
keeping profits and people in Iowa.
For Iowa to become a national leader in the new economy, rural Iowa must grow
and for rural Iowa to grow it needs high-speed internet access. Today, I call upon all of
Iowa’s private telecommunications companies to meet with me, the Lieutenant
Governor and the state’s technology and communications officials to develop a strategic
plan to make that happen as quickly as possible.
© 2000 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
Comments about this site or page?
hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.
Please remember that the person listed above does not vote on bills. Direct all comments concerning legislation to State Legislators.
Last update: Tue Jan 18 08:25:00 CST 2000
URL: /DOCS/GA/78GA/Session.2/HJournal/00000/00042.html
jhf