Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C141362 07/30/2014 PROTECT THE HARVEST PAC – MISSOURI Protect the Harvest P.O. Box 1131 Davenport IA 52802 7/29/2014 $200,000.00

[emphasis added]

Iowa?

The PAC was established in June:

C141362: Protect The Harvest Pac – Missouri

Po Box 602 Committee Type: Political Action

Pacific Mo 63069

[….] Established Date: 06/05/2014

[emphasis added]

They cycled that through pretty quickly (from a required 24 hour campaign finance report):

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

EXPENDITURES AND CONTRIBUTIONS MADE

PROTECT THE HARVEST PAC – MISSOURI [pdf] 7/30/2014

Victory Enterprises 5200 SW 30th St. Davenport IA 52802 7/29/2014 Advertising $199,900.00

[emphasis added]

Heh. Apparently it’s a one stop shop.

Iowa, again.

Who are these people?:

BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS THAT MONEY CAN BUY:

A GUIDE TO FOOD INDUSTRY FRONT GROUPS [pdf]

CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY

May 2013

….IN RESPONSE TO HEIGHTENED CRITICISM over the past few years, the food industry has stepped up its public relations efforts to reassure the media, the public, and policymakers that our food system is healthy and safe. One increasingly common way industry attempts to shape the public discourse is by forming a group that appears to benefit the public. Often these groups claim to represent farmers or consumers or some other sympathetic constituency when in fact they are funded by powerful industry players. Some long-standing front groups have a broad agenda, such as pushing industry-friendly science. Others form just to lobby or conduct public relations on a specific policy for a limited time and then disappear….

[….]

PROTECT THE HARVEST http://www.protecttheharvest.com

MISSION? Its sole purpose to attack Humane Society of United States, as stated on its home page: “to fight back and defend American families, farmers, hunters and animal owners from the growing threat posed by the radical animal rights movement.” [….]

WHO’S FUNDING IT? Appears to be a project of the billionaire Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil and Lucas Cattle Company. [….]

From the group’s web site:

….Protect the Harvest, an education and advocacy group founded by Forrest Lucas of Lucas Oil in 2010….

Ah.

But wait, there was even more money coming in on behalf of Amendment 1, as reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission yesterday:

C101457 07/30/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE MFA Inc. 201 Ray Young Dr Columbia MO 65201 7/29/2014 $25,000.00

C101457 07/30/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Farm Bureau Federation PO Box 658 Jefferson City MO 65102 7/29/2014 $20,000.00

C101457 07/30/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Corn Growers Association 3118 Emerald Lane Jefferson City MO 65109 7/30/2014 $18,000.00

C101457 07/30/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Pork Association 6235 W Cunningham Dr Columbia MO 65202 7/29/2014 $100,000.00

C101457 07/30/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Grow Missouri 308 E High St Jefferson City MO 65101 7/29/2014 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

What, Rex Sinquefield has an interest in this, too? Say it ain’t so…

Previously:

Campaign Finance: $110,000.00 for something they really care about (January 3, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Food fight! (May 28, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Because, across Missouri, family farms are being supplanted by… (June 24, 2014)

Campaign Finance: as if yard signs were actually a cash crop for actual farmers… (June 28, 2014)

Utilizing the First Amendment to challenge our oppressive corporate overlords… (July 2, 2014)

Joe Maxwell – “No” on Amendment No. 1 (July 8, 2014)

Campaign Finance: egg money (July 9, 2014)

Campaign Finance: opposing useless law (July 25, 2014)

Right to farm: read the small print and between the lines (July 25, 2014)

Pinch me, I must be dreaming – Cynthia Davis gets it right on Amendment 1 (July 30, 2014)