Senator Paul LeVota (D) via Twitter this morning on the water crisis in Toledo, Ohio:

Paul LeVota ‏@paullevota

Fertilizer from farms & waste from livestock pens triggers water crisis. What if they had a “Right to Farm” this way? (http://t.co/fNLM4MLKMD) 7:15 AM – 4 Aug 2014

Uh, yep.

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)

Campaign Finance: Big agriculture money keeps pouring in for Amendment 1 (July 31, 2014)

Baker Creek Seed Company – Vote “No” on Amendment 1 (August 3, 2014)

A video by Jerry Schmidt:

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)

Campaign Finance: Big agriculture money keeps pouring in for Amendment 1 (July 31, 2014)

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)

I took a look at the Turner Report today in order to find out what’s going on down in Joplin and thereabouts. Guess what I found. A copy of a press release from none other than the  über-conservative dreamgirl, Cynthia Davis, erstwhile GOP legislative pain in the you-know-what and more recently, Missouri Constitution Party doyenne, on the reasons she opposes – yes, you read it right, opposes – the right to farm Amendment 1. Her reason:

Normally, the conservative position is to side with less regulation. However, there is a real threat that the Chinese could buy up our farmland. In that scenario, having fewer regulations could allow us to end up with massive problems like squallier [sic], filth and stench.

Figures that the argument that got to her had to with thwarting those dammed foreigners, but she still gets the main issue right. Corporate farms stand to benefit, not necessarily small farms (she does express a bit of worry about protecting the already amply protected Missouri family farmer). Is this what the Missouri political world would look like if we could cure rightwing delusions and GOP politicians carefully weighed issues based on real, verifiable facts, not hot air, conspiracy theories, and/or which campaign donor stands to benefit the most?

Davis should get some credit for this – the Turner Report post directly below her statement on the issue was that of Missouri House Speaker and money-man Tim Jones, who, predictably asserts that Amendment 1 has been “designed to protect the family farming traditions that are such an important part of our state’s history, and such a vital component of our state’s economy.” Of course, Davis isn’t in elective office anymore – actually, she isn’t even a Republican any more – so she doesn’t have to line up with the GOPers in Jefferson City who have their hands out waiting for Big Ag benefactors to drop some of that green manna from heaven into their grubby paws.

Addenda: Okay. Perhaps I’m giving her too much credit. She doesn’t seem to realize that homegrown, American agricultural corporations are just as likely to create “massive problems like squallier [sic], filth and stench” as the Chinese variety.  

You’re familiar with the classic situation of somebody who gets hoodwinked because they didn’t read the small print. Well, it looks like we’ve got some purveyers of very, very small print (so small that it’s not even there) here in Missouri. These are the folks who devised and are promoting the proposed Missouri Constitutional Amendment 1 (House Joint Resolution Nos. 11 & 7). This is the August 5 ballot language that you will see when you vote:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure that the right of Missouri citizens to engage in agricultural production and ranching practices shall not be infringed?

The potential costs or savings to governmental entities are unknown, but likely limited unless the resolution leads to increased litigation costs and/or the loss of federal funding.

However, the Linn County Reader informs us that :

… although the official ballot language voters will see when they go to the polls next month gives no indication of this, the Fair Ballot Language that voters won’t see when they go to the polls on Aug. 5 states, “A ‘yes’ vote will amend the Missouri Constitution…subject to any power given to local government under Article VI of the Missouri Constitution.” Instead, the voters will see official ballot language that reveals nothing about the impact of Amendment One on the ability of local government to regulate CAFOs.

[…] If Constitutional Amendment One passes, you will be left without any ability to provide reasonable health and welfare safeguards for neighbors living in the rural areas of your county.”

If you doubt that all is not what it seems, note that Missouri GOP Senator Roy Blunt, a.k.a. Montsanto’s man in Washington, came out recently for the Amendment, dubbed yet another “Montsanto Protection Act” by one writer who is concerned about the proliferation of genetically modified foods and the dominance of the biotech sector in agriculture.  Blunt straightaway set about trying to assuage fears that rather than protecting the “family farms” that supporters are piously evoking in their pro-Amendment 1 TV ads, the bill is intended to protect powerful corporate factory farms whose questionable agricultural practices might be vulnerable to regulation and so-called “nuisance” suits that threaten the bottom-line for the Blunt-friendly big-guys.

The fact that Blunt is the latest pro-Amendent 1 batter up speaks for itself, as does the likely source of the amendment:

A year ago, the North Dakota [right to farm] measure was a topic for discussion as legislative agriculture chairmen from across the U.S. gathered for a conference in Vancouver, Canada. The event by the State Agriculture and Rural Leaders Association was financed by dozens of agriculture businesses, including Archer Daniels Midland Co., Cargill, DuPont Pioneer, Deere & Co. and Tyson Foods. Among those present was Missouri Rep. Bill Reiboldt, a farmer who sponsored the right-to-farm amendment referred to this year’s ballot by the Republican-led state Legislature.

If you’re interested in why one would oppose what seems on the surface to be an almost meaningless reiteration of support for farming, this video of former Missouri Lt. Governor Joe Maxwell speaking against the bill spells out the ways that Amendment 1 not only threatens the family farm, but the safety of our food supply:

Among other points Maxwell makes, he points suggests that Amendment 1 could result in weakening the protections for the family farmer that were spelled out in the 1975 Family Farm Act. As he noted elsewhere:

This amendment is about ensuring the largest multi-national corporation constitutional rights here in Missouri so they can do whatever THEY want to us neighbors out in the country. […]. What other industry has constitutional protections to do whatever they want and strips the local voice, either at the local level, the county level or even at the statehouse from being able to put in safeguards for neighbors out in the country?

Not only will supporters of this stealth legislation not answer these questions, they would prefer that you not even realize that anyone is asking.

“…Today in Missouri, as wll as Oklahoma, Indiana, and two other states, corporate agriculture is trying to put their guarantee to farm in state constitutions…” – former Missouri Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C101457 07/08/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Egg Council, Inc. 1000 W. Nifong Blvd Bldg 5 Columbia MO 65203 7/7/2014 $10,000.00

C101457 07/08/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE FCS Financial 1934 E. Miller Jefferson City MO 65101 7/8/2014 $30,000.00

[emphasis added]

It must be nice that someone cares, in $10,000.00 increments.

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)

“…They’re putting up big signs, But, as we say, signs don’t vote…”

On July 7, 2014 in Springfield, Missouri former Missouri Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell (D) spoke on voting “no” on Amendment No. 1.

Video by Jerry Schmidt.

From the video description:

Missouri Right to Farm Amendment

This issue will be on your ballot August 5 as Amendment One to the state constitution.

This amendment does not originate organically from our legislator’s recognizing a need for Missouri people. It is rather a product of ALEC […]

There are several Right to Farm states already. This amendment promotes a corporatist agenda. Down deep in the language of the document there is permission for Corporations to pollute, treat animals very badly, and harm our food system.

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)