It was a spirited, albeit informative meeting at the home of Marge Fritts last week as a crowd gathered to hear Wes Shoemyer, former Missouri 18th district Senator speak in opposition to the ‘Right to Farm’ amendment facing voters in August.
Shoemyer, who operates a 2500 acre family farm in Monroe County Missouri, has been quite vocal about the need to kill to the bill. “Amendment 1 is incredibly vague”… even lawmakers who voted for it are conflicted about whether it would stop some or all of Missouri’s counties and cities from exercising local control over agricultural enterprises. Passage would only be a call for the “courts to interpret what they actually mean”.
Shoemyer says the verbiage of the amendment would allow foreign entities to root even deeper into Missouri. Some of these companies already having a big stake in our state- for example 55,000 Missouri acres are Chinese owned. Plus, many beef and poultry operations are Brazilian owned which is cause for starters, safety concerns. Plus, “the amendment would allow a bad neighbor to be worse” said Shoemyer regarding the loss of control of land by Missouri farmers. “We need to STOP exporting wealth” he added.
He also mentioned that even if a farmer thought he might not be directly affected by passage of the amendment, he certainly can be- since adjacent land with unchecked operations could directly affect his land values. “Neighbors deserve to be protected, too. Say NO to the corporate farming takeovers and let’s keep the wealth in the community”.
Kay Caskey also emphasized the need to vote NO August 5th – “This is a big, big deal. People need to get educated about what this is and how it could adversely affect Missouri farmers, and in fact, it could affect everyone in Missouri”.
The public is urged to read, understand and vote August 5. Get information regarding the bill here.
Also, a Google search of ‘Missouri Right to Farm’ will generate many results.
courtesy of Bates County Live
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