A democratic candidate for an Iowa seat in the U.S. Senate made a visit to Iowa State to discuss a green not associated with campaign dollars.

David Osterberg, member of the Iowa House from 1983 to 1994 and currently an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa, spoke to about 20 people on global climate change in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union.

“Global climate change is a very serious issue,” Osterberg said. “It is harder for us to find something to do about it than it is to find something to do about the large factories moving into rural areas.”

Osterberg believes the problem was caused by House File 519.

He said the file made it tougher for neighbors of the large confinement facilities to sue over “nuisances,” give benefits to the large facilities, and set up a system that has shown to cause environmental problems.

Osterberg explained that the file was passed because Iowa was afraid of losing the industry to Missouri.

He said to fix the problem, federal legislation that would not allow a company to play one state against another is necessary.

Osterberg favors hoop houses, a cheap method of raising hogs in a way that depends on nature by using straw and cornstalks, an idea which also is being pushed by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

“I would try to give more incentive for a different kind of technology,” Osterberg said, “which doesn’t smell, doesn’t cause problems with neighbors, doesn’t need to be in such gigantic pieces and has lower capital inputs.”

Osterberg also favors the use of switch grass as an alternative energy crop in Iowa.

He said switch grass would give Iowa farmers another crop, would protect local water resources by cutting down on erosion and could be burned with coal to produce electricity.

Osterberg said switch grass is already being used by the Ottumwa Generating Station in southern Iowa.

“[I believe in] using local resources and giving local benefits to land owners here in Iowa,” Osterberg said. “If we give that, it helps the problem of global climate change by reducing the new [carbon dioxide] that would be pushed in the atmosphere.”