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George H.W. Bush remembered as friend to agriculture

President George H.W. Bush is being remembered as a friend to agriculture who helped expand trade between the U.S. and China.

Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Hill says Bush brought a calming presence to the Oval Office.

“We need that congeniality, that amicability that come sometimes in politics and was with George Herbert Walker Bush.  And we sometimes wish we had that back.”

Before his presidency, Bush was appointed ambassador to the United Nations and was named chief liaison to China in 1974.

“And you think of our previous governor Terry Branstad now being the Ambassador to China, that connection with China, that international relationship paid dividends then and hopefully will pay dividends now.”

The Chinese state newspaper called Bush a “statesman of vision” earlier this week.

Brownfield interviewed Hill at the Iowa Farm Bureau annual meeting in Des Moines Tuesday.