Missouri Joint Resolution #7

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: An e-mail from a friend this morning, regarding a new piece of legislation just filed in Missouri: Joint resolution #7. It has some language about protecting hunters and fishermen from future regulations, and then there’s a sentence that would make it unconstitutional to pass laws that would affect farmers’ and ranchers’ rights to "agricultural technology and modern livestock production and ranching techniques," ... For those of us who have been working on farm issues for, um, decades, “modern livestock production and ranching techniques” is a code meaning confined animal feeding operations, CAFOs. Those are the giant industrial operations that keep animals in huge metal buildings for their entire filthy lives. So this resolution says CAFOs couldn’t be made to adhere to new regulations, like feeding less antibiotics. And the chemical companies changing the gene structures of plants so they can spray more chemicals? That’s “agricultural technology.” To make it even stranger, chemical-free farmers make more money, so wouldn't you think the state would choose chemical-free?! And animals choose to be outside in all kinds of weather. Last night, when I went to check the sheep after dark, they were all bedded down in the woods instead of the barn.

So here we go again. Missouri’s General Assembly starts meeting January 9. What are we going to do to fight the power of these giant corporations?