This year, Missouri voters will be asked to approve constitutional Amendment 1, which seeks to enshrine the “right to farm” in our constitution. This amendment is being pushed by such organizations as the Missouri Farm Bureau, an insurance company, Missouri Farmers Care, a group made up of banks, law firms and industrialized agriculture groups, and St. Louis-based Monsanto, one of the world’s largest seed companies.
These organizations are the same groups that lobbied the Missouri legislature to allow for the foreign ownership of farmland in 2013. Currently, Missouri’s traditional farmers are protected from foreign corporations owning extensive farmland and operating farms. Amendment 1 would take that protection away by providing legal standing to foreign entities hoping to cash in on Missouri’s natural resources. A Chinese company already owns 50,000 acres of Missouri’s farmland, and if given constitutional protection, that number will continue to grow.
As a farmer, I know agriculture is an honorable profession. I also know farmers already have the right to farm. We have been doing it for hundreds of years in Missouri.
It is true small farmers are struggling, but it’s not because of animal welfare organizations that want a better a life for farm animals. It’s because of the industrialized agriculture model that has taken over our food supply. I never thought I’d see the day when, as a farmer, I wouldn’t be able to save my own seeds.
Our rights are only in danger, if this amendment passes. Amendment 1 will give constitutional rights to foreign corporations and multinational conglomerates, while taking them away from Missouri residents. Industrialized agriculture and its abuses are a failure. What is big agriculture’s response to consumers who are figuring out these abuses? They want to enshrine the right to farm in the constitution, stripping consumers of their voice.
No other industry or occupation in this state has constitutional immunity. Imagine giving constitutional protection to the aeronautics industry or the medical field. These things sound absurd.
Our legislature had the responsibility of balancing the interests of farmers, consumers and communities. Consumers have an ever-increasing interest in knowing how their food is produced, how the animals are treated and where their food comes from. When the legislature put Amendment 1 on the ballot, they ignored that responsibility. It is now up to Missouri residents to take over and defeat Amendment 1.
Our constitution was written to protect us – not foreign corporations. Farming in Missouri is not in trouble; it’s the state’s No. 1 industry. But it will be if this amendment passes, and that is why the family farmers of Missouri’s Food for America are joining with our consumers to say vote no on Amendment 1.
—Wes Shoemyer, president of Missouri’s Food for America and former state senator
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