Viewpoint
By Don Copenhaver, President
Legislation standardizes regulation and protects producers from frivolous suits
Sixteen county health ordinances targeting animal agriculture have been enacted in Missouri in recent years. Most were adopted with the best of intentions. But good intentions do not always equal good law. Good intentions can have drastic consequences. Imagine, if you will, the effects of 114 county ordinances regulating every aspect of production agriculture in Missouri. Leaders of mainstream Missouri agriculture groups do imagine that scenario. That’s why all stand in support of new proposed state legislation called the Missouri Farm and Food Preservation Act.
Rarely does MFA take an outspoken political stand on state issues. Although we have our home office in Columbia, Mo., as well as a vast network of Agri Services Centers across Missouri, our trade territory and store offerings exceed state boundaries.
We have locations and do business in many surrounding states. Still, MFA’s position is to always support agriculture in whatever way we can. Sometimes, though, issues arise that are so structurally important to agriculture that they cannot be ignored.
That’s the case with the Missouri Farm and Food Preservation Act. The act recognizes that existing state and federal regulatory standards for livestock operations are comprehensive and thorough. Family farmers must comply with these regulations to stay in business. Yet, to survive the modern economics of agriculture, family farmers must have the opportunity to expand and modernize their operations. Hindering that opportunity is the state’s patchwork of existing county health ordinances that weaken the ability of farmers to earn a living and threaten the economic viability of agriculture at all levels in the state.
MFA Incorporated supports the Missouri Farm and Food Preservation Act of 2007 because the act empowers farmers. I realize that as I write this in March, legislative conditions might well change by the time this magazine sees print. But the issue is important enough to Midwestern agriculture that it needs to be addressed in every forum available.
For an example of just how seriously mainstream state agricultural organizations take this issue, let me quote some of their positions. First from Don Nikodim, executive vice president of the Missouri Pork Association: “Missouri’s pork producers are facing challenges that threaten their livelihood…. The choice is clear. We can continue to allow emotion and fear-based regulations to drive farmers out of business, or we can have one consistent, science-based set of rules and regulations for Missouri agriculture.”
Next, from Charlie Kruse, president of Missouri Farm Bureau: “…It has become necessary to seek legislative changes which further protect modern agricultural practices and the increasing interaction between producers and the public. The Missouri Farm and Food Preservation Act of 2007 does two things: 1) it requires that regulation of production agriculture take place at the state and federal levels; and 2) it provides a greater firewall for agricultural producers from frivolous nuisance lawsuits.”
As a cooperative, MFA operates a business made of farmers and designed to serve farmers. In fact, our organization and its 47,000 members are proof that farming is an economic multiplier for the state.
MFA’s 1,600 employees, their payroll and the economic activity that pushes out from our 109 retail locations and 51 affiliates depend on agriculture.
MFA operates eight feed mills with an annual production of more than 400,000 tons, so we witness firsthand through our customers how interrelated the livestock industry is with the rest of Missouri agriculture. Disabling one sector of agriculture—as recently adopted county health ordinances have done—will be detrimental to the rest. Remember, agriculture employs some 400,000 people or about 15 percent of Missouri’s work force. It truly is the economic bedrock of Missouri.
Over the past few years, a team of University of Missouri economists and livestock specialists calculated a combined effect of $1.1 billion of economic activity from the swine industry in Missouri. That’s about $590 million in production alone with associated spending on wages, equipment, building, etc. making the balance.
The number for beef enterprises was $1.5 billion. For dairy, it was $402 million. These numbers represent a snapshot in time and change with prices, but the narrative they offer is simple: livestock agriculture is a mainstay of our economy. And these livestock operations, even with the surge in ethanol production, continue to be the largest customers for Missouri’s grain farmers.
Certainly agriculture must bear the cost of reasonable regulations, but ad hoc and patchwork efforts such as the county health ordinances we’ve seen so far are an unfair, unscientific and anti-agriculture burden.
The Missouri Farm and Food Preservation Act recognizes the importance of agriculture in Missouri. We hope you take the time to understand it and support it. More importantly, let your neighbors and your county commissioners as well as your state senators and representatives know your views.
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