Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged Thursday to fight any future efforts to close Ellsworth Air Force Base, much as her husband did while he was president more than a decade ago.

"I'm proud that the Clinton administration helped to keep the base open in 1994, when it was on the BRAC closing list, and my husband had it removed," Clinton told the Journal in an interview after a brief campaign stop in Rapid City. "Not only is the base vital to South Dakota's economic success, it's also vital to national security."

In a discussion of other issues, Clinton promised to support the development of a deep underground science and engineering laboratory at the old Homestake gold mine in Lead. And she said that if elected president she would battle the trend of consolidation in the meat-production industry, exemplified by the announced sale of Smithfield Foods' beef operations to a Brazilian company, which would make it the largest beef producer in the United States.

Clinton spent about 20 minutes at Jerry's Cakes and Donuts on Thursday afternoon, a day after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, make a campaign stop on her behalf at Pine Ridge. The New York senator said she believed in the need for more extensive scientific research, such as that planned for the laboratory at Homestake.

Such efforts have not been emphasized and in some cases have been impeded under the administration of George W. Bush, she said.

"I support investing in science and exploration," she said. "I will end President Bush's budget cuts to our scientific research efforts."

Clinton said Homestake was selected by the National Science Foundation after a legitimate and rigorous competition between prospective sites, a process that was more about science and less about politics. That isn't always the case, she said.

"That's the kind of process we need more of," Clinton said. "We don't need science being dictated by politics and ideology as it is under the Bush administration."

Clinton criticized the announced purchase by a Brazilian company of the beef-processing operations of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, saying it was an unsettling sign of the increasingly consolidated meat-packing industry.

"I'm opposed to the deal, and as president, I would build on the progress in this current Farm Bill to fight consolidation," Clinton said. "And I would push to enact a ban on packer ownership of livestock."

Clinton made a campaign stop earlier in the day at a farm near Bath in northeastern South Dakota and came away criticizing Republican presidential candidate John McCain for siding with the Bush administration on the new farm bill. McCain said he would veto the bill, as Bush has threatened to do.

Clinton, who refrained from criticizing her Democratic opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, said she agrees with South Dakota's three-member congressional delegation and other farm-state delegations that the farm bill approved by Congress is the best option available for farmers and ranchers right now.

Clinton praised portions of the legislation that would boost alternative fuel development, including ethanol production that would go beyond the current dominance of corn as an energy source.

Under the proposed farm bill, those other natural materials could include forest products. And Clinton said the woods are full of energy potential.

"I've worked very hard on this in upstate New York," where researchers at Syracuse University are working on the use of fast-growing maple trees as an energy source, she said. "The fundamental point is that the sun is the source of power generation absorbed into plants. We should be looking at the most efficient forms of plant life to release this energy."

Clinton's visit in Rapid City followed a campaign stop here by her husband last Saturday. In the former president's visit to Pine Ridge on Wednesday, he pledged that his wife would honor sovereignty and improve education, economic development and health-care programs for Native people.

Hillary Clinton said Thursday that her universal coverage plan would bring vital medical care to "underserved populations like Indian Country." In addition, Clinton said she would focus additional resources on fighting diabetes, heart disease, fetal alcohol syndrome and other crisis-level health issues among Native Americans.

That would include reauthorizing the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, increasing funding to the Indian Health Service and elevating the IHS director to an assistant-secretary level within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com.