Rural infrastructure offers great opportunity for jobs and development: invest in our farm-to-market roads, the lock and dam systems on our great heartland rivers, and the rapid development of rural broadband.

Democrats have an opportunity to put forward a smart approach to immigration. Manufacturers and farm operations need workers, but President Trump has so demonized the immigrant work force that Republicans won’t soon offer anything like a solution.

The Iowa Business Council, made up of 23 executives from Iowa’s largest employers, recently stressed the need for the state to modernize the immigration system to help expand the economy. Iowa is not alone: Washington State doesn’t want apples rotting on the ground for lack of pickers; Wisconsin worries about small dairy operations desperate for people to milk the cows.

Don’t demonize “Big Ag” and factory farms. It’s just liberal white noise to most involved in agriculture. Most of our farms are family-owned, not big agricultural corporations, even if they are integrated into the larger systems to one degree or another. Most need that integration to survive.

Of course there’s plenty about agriculture policy to rant about. Over the past several decades, the four largest pork packers, beef packers, soybean crushers and wet corn processors have captured 71 percent to 86 percent of their respective markets. Four companies control 90 percent of the global grain trade.

Congress let this happen. We need legislation that revives competition in the agricultural economy.

The Green New Deal, even with its flaws, is a good place to start. The Plains States are among the leaders in solar and wind power. Equally important is inviting farmers to lead the charge in fighting global warming. Farmers can help keep carbon out of the atmosphere through a process called carbon sequestration, a natural result of the right farming practices. These include planting cover crops, leaving organic matter in fields after harvest, rotating in additional kinds of crops and managing grazing . Current farm policy pits conservation efforts against maximizing production.

Policy that stabilizes the farm economy costs pennies per meal; so would compensating farmers for environmental services. This would help all farmers, as well as improve our air, water and soil quality. At a recent Sunday meeting at a Presbyterian church nearby, farmers complained that current farm policies favor those who skip conservation and punish those who do the right thing.