Missouri has a long and impressive history of being home to a diverse and large agricultural population. Many folks in our state are proud of this legacy and want to preserve it for future generations. When people venture outside of our state’s towns and cities, it’s refreshing to see that rural Missouri and its agriculture communities are still alive and well.
However, if the people of our state want this way of life to continue, we need to be willing to take action today.
Amendment 1, aka Missouri’s Farming Rights Amendment, would help farmers and ranchers thwart out-of-state animal rights and environmental groups seeking to alter traditional farming and its practices. The groups’ goals are extreme, not based in fact, and are often counterintuitive to farmers’ goals of growing food in efficient, safe and humane ways.
Missouri’s farmers and ranchers need assurance they can continue to farm using the best management practices at our disposal. These practices have long been based on unbiased university research. We need to have the ability to do what generations of farmers before us have done, whether it be weaning calves or raising hogs and poultry in barns where we can protect them from the elements and predators.
One myth that out-of-state animal rights groups tend to spread is that we want this amendment in place to protect those who are unsafe or unethical in their practices. That is not the case.
This amendment does not protect the “bad actors” or those who are irresponsible in the care and well-being of land and livestock. That is not what farmers are asking for.
What Amendment 1 will do is ensure farmers can do what we need to in providing and caring for our animals and crops in a respectable manner.
We hope to guarantee these traditional, university research-based practices will not be under political attack, and we hope this will allow Missouri agriculture to continue to thrive as the state’s leading industry.
We also have to think about future generations and how this will affect them. Farmers want nothing more than for our children to have the same opportunities we, and generations before us, have had.
It is imperative we make farming accessible and protected for those who wish to provide food in our great state in the years to come.
Just as important is the impact this amendment has for all Missourians.
By supporting Amendment 1, voters are safeguarding their food choices and ensuring safety in food production all while keeping prices at affordable levels. With families’ expenses continuing to escalate, the last thing consumers need is for out-of-state special interest groups to bring unwarranted burdens to the farmer and cause food prices to skyrocket.
I ask that you stay informed on the issue, ask a farmer about any questions you have about farming practices and vote yes on Amendment 1 on Aug. 5. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to keep Missouri farming.
—Glen Cope, a fourth generation beef producer near Aurora and past chairman of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
