News
Newly formed group mounts opposition to Missouri Right-to-Farm
A coalition has announced its opposition to the so-called Right to Farm amendment that’s to appear on the state ballot this year. Spokesman for the new group, “Missouri Food for America,” Missouri farmer and former State Senator Wes Shoemyer, said Tuesday that Right-to-Farm is not about protecting farmers’ right to operate. He cited corporations that have farming interests in the state and also cited Smithfield’s acquisition last year by a Chinese firm.
“If it’s passed it will take away people’s right to have a voice of redress in this state,” said Shoemyer, to open a news conference at the State Capitol. “Agriculture’s the largest industry in this state; no other industry in this state would enjoy that constitutional protection.”
Shoemyer is also part of the Humane Society of the United States’ Ag Council, the formation of which was announced at the same news conference.
Dan Kleinsorge, spokesman for Missouri Farmers Care, the group pushing for passage of the Right-to-Farm constitutional amendment, dismisses Shoemyer’s mention of corporate farms.
“That’s really just messaging on their part; that’s something they want to do to try to scare voters and our job’s going to be to educate voters why all farmers, small and big, family farmers across the state need the farming rights amendment to protect them from groups like HSUS,” Kleinsorge told Brownfield Ag News.
The group Missouri Farmers Care accuses Shoemyer’s newly formed political action committee “Missouri Food for America” as little more than a front for the Humane Society of the United States.
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Tom Kruzen……..AGREED.
What about this proposed amendment allowing Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to set up next to schools, nursing homes inside cities or next to our national scenic rivers with municipalities or counties or any state agency being able to stop them? Not all forms of farming are harmless. Chemical agriculture and genetically modified crops are a definite threat to traditional agriculture, which was organic agriculture before WWII.