MISSOURI: Do Something or Do Nothing and Suffer Silently without Clean Air and Water

Image from Missouri Food for America and U3.
Words from Theodore Roosevelt, a capitalist but a naturalist as well.

FELLOW MISSOURIANS AND VOTERS:

Next Tuesday on March 31 at 11 a.m. in House Hearing Room 3 at the Missouri State Capitol Building, the Missouri Rural Crisis Center will be holding an event in Jefferson City.  This Special Blog Posting only deals with that issue.  People like to talk.  Few people do what they talk about doing.  Do something.  Stop the proliferation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in this beautiful, natural State.  Call someone who represents your area and tell them you want the expansion of Corporate Agriculture to STOP NOW.  Read and print out the flyer in this link and give it to someone who is interested. 
Missouri Rural Crisis Center - Family Farms & Democracy.

That's all for this posting.  If you don't do something soon, we all will suffer.  The planet will suffer.  Your children will find it hard to breathe.  You will suffer disease and other negative effects as these things crop up more and more frequently in our beautiful State.  And you can't get back that which you have lost by doing nothing:  Clean Air and Water, the Right to Healthy Living.

Thanks for reading and doing something, if you do really do something.  I promise you …  you do not want a Factory Farm as Your Neighbor, but this upcoming legislation could make that happen for you sooner than you think.





Comments are by this individual writing the blog and no other company, nonprofit or other organization has approved or endorsed them. Am not a scientist, so can't claim my own scientific research but just comment on what is happening. These words are my sole opinion and no one else is responsible for these remarks. Anonymous comments not accepted. Stand up for your opinion. Thanks for your thoughtful and kind responses. Please keep language clean and our farmlands green. :)

Real Farmers Get The Sustainable Ag Advantage. Some Farmers & Politicians Don't.

"Wide Open Fences,"
Courtesy of Photoartdb Consulting
Copyright 2015.  All Rights Reserved

Write down March 31 for a rendezvous in Jeff City!  You'll learn why later in this blog.  It is indeed a peaceful feeling to wake up on a foggy March morning, walk out on your front porch and watch the sunrise in absolute silence accented only with robins and other birds announcing Spring on its way in Southwest Missouri.  A natural inclination is to breathe the fresh clean air and allow the beauty to soak into your lungs.  Unless you live next door to a Factory Farm or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), in which case, your chest will begin to ache after a little while when the wind comes from a certain direction.  You may feel some tightness in your lungs as I have, plus your sinuses begin to itch and tingle from the subtle stench of these unhealthy operations.

Here in Barton County, it's not uncommon to hear about neighbors passing away from lung disease, heart or cancer-related illnesses at a relatively young age.  No one in the local medical or agricultural communities have connected the dots yet, unless they are someone who came from a cleaner and more policed state where CAFOs are concerned. After living in four different states before coming back to my hometown to roost, it is the first time that I've seen this proliferation of fatal and potentially environmentally-connected illnesses among my friends and neighbors.  The sudden deaths and rapid evolution of diseases in people who are too young to go has startled this typically cynical type.  

Even in New York City, which has its own challenges with air and water on a tiny island that houses over 8 million people, there are days when the air is pristine coming in from the ocean.  Not the same for those in the Heartland of America who see CAFOs cropping up and smell the foul odor of turkey feces used to fertilize land.  Land that the large Corporate Ag Companies are now planning to spread more genetically modified crops on and use their seeds to take over farming in this State.  Even more legislation is being considered in Jefferson City that will lift almost all restrictions on foreign ownership of farmland in Missouri, as well as open the door to other nightmares for people like me who need to eat organically and eliminate local controls on health ordinances designed to keep the land clean and green for natural farming methods.

Farmers who support sustainable agricultural methods must mobilize and react to these things.  People often think that America is ahead of the game where agriculture stands, but in other countries laws are being passed against Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) seeds.  Farmers in these countries are now realizing that they cannot stand silent while they are handed an unacceptable alternative to their proven successful methods of farming.

Hundreds of Polish Farmers Block Roads To Protest GMO Seeds

What Europe has learned about GMOs and their use needs to be looked at by pragmatic and intelligent parties controlling the agriculture game in this country.  If it is looked at realistically, those parties will quickly see that we need to take a closer look before just blindly accepting what our government is trying to force down our throats and into our stomachs.

In Missouri, we have several nonprofit organizations that are dedicated to the preservation of our water, natural resources, environment, agricultural sustainability and other related subjects.  There is Missouri's Food for America (MFFA) that was formed by former legislator Wes Shomeyer in an attempt to stop the Right To Farm Amendment #1 that passed narrowly last August in a vote so close that a recall was demanded.  This detrimental amendment to the state constitution is now opening doors for bigger and more daunting bills to be introduced into committees and then on the legislative floor for debate that would significantly impact the future of agricultural sustainability in this state.  MFFA and the Missouri Farmers' Union have joined with the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) in filing a lawsuit to try and reverse the negative impact that the passing of Amendment #1 has caused by stopping it before it becomes entrenched in our state government.  The Coalition for the Environment, along with other more urban-located groups like the Gateway Greens Alliance in St. Louis, have also made their voices heard on this subject.

MRCC has called for those who support Democracy and Family Farms to congregate on the lawn in Jefferson City at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 31 to show that we are against further depletion of local controls, pending bills that would allow even greater foreign ownership of our natural farmlands in this State and to show our politicians that government should be of the people, for the people and by the people through show of strength to those elected officials.  You can read more about this event and even fill out a form to RSVP to it (they are providing lunch) by clicking the link below:

RSVP Today for March 31 MRCC Event for Democracy & Family Farms!

Some of the things that are under consideration by the Missouri State Legislature are as follows from MRCC talking points:

1. Multiple pro-CAFO, anti-local control bills that totally gut local control from Missouri counties and penalize counties for having CAFO health ordinances. ("The CAFO Bills")
2. Bills that help expand corporate, foreign ownership of Missouri farmland.
3. Corporate Ag Beef Check-Off bills that tax cattle farmers and promote industrial ag, which are opposed by the vast majority of Missouri cattle farmers.
4. Legislation that exempts liability for industrial livestock pollution at the expense of farmers, property rights & rural communities ("The Pollution Protection Act").

Be a part of the change you would like to see and, if you live in Missouri, consider gathering some friends and heading to Jefferson City at the end of this month to stop this madness in the legislative chambers.

Meanwhile in other parts of the world, scientists are looking into other ways to reverse the impact that Monsanto and other Big Ag Science has had on the world with the most natural of means - a universal biopestide based on simple mushrooms.  Read more by clicking this link on a new patent that has been taken out by scientist Paul Stamets:

Paul Stamets patents universal biopesticide that Big Ag calls the most disruptive technology that we have ever witnessed

If you haven't heard about TED, it is an international forum for cutting-edge technology and an idea "think tank" where scientists and other knowledgable people (some of them actual genius levels) bring forth new ideas that could improve our world.  There is a recent discussion by Paul Stamets in 2011 that tells more about what mushrooms can do and how they can help the environment:

Ted Talks with Paul Stamets on how Mushrooms Can Save The World

Whether it is a mushroom that saves our farmlands and rebuilds the damage that Big Ag products have reaped upon the soil or a group of dedicated individuals who want to see farming stay sustainable, natural and healthy for future generations … saving the environment is something worth getting involved in for this state and every state in the United States and every citizen living in those states who wants to eat healthy food at a reasonable cost.  

Recently, my church developed a new mission statement:  Love, Know, Serve & Grow.  A class that I'm taking is based on the writings of Philip Yancey and his book, "The Jesus I Never Knew."  In the book, Yancey relates people's visions of Jesus as depicted in the movies and other popular media.  As a process in studying this book, our pastor asked that we start forming who we think Jesus was and what he was about.  What is my perception of Jesus?  He was one of the most outspoken revolutionaries of his time in a tough time.  To emulate him would be to speak out when we see wrongs being done, to love our enemies but know more about where the enemy is coming from and see how we can impact a more positive outcome.  We need to serve others, because it is not just about us and grow in our faith by studying what's important.  My challenge to you, dear reader, is that you need to love, know, serve and grow efforts that will save our planet and help our society.  My New Year's Resolution was only one thing:  Learn More Stuff.  As I learn more, I see how important the efforts to overcome the proliferation of CAFOs in our state is.  When you read in Time Magazine that very soon 1% of the population will control 99% of the wealth in this nation, it is indeed a sobering thought.  Consider what and how you can do something to make things better - not just for that 1% but for  the other 99% who will be left scrambling in the shadow of those who may not have our best interests at heart.  A person that I know and respect who called this one to my attention noted that when this has happened at other times in history, a revolution has evolved out of it.  The revolution is already rumbling in many small communities and other states, as well as this one.

Think about the words to this old rock and roll song.  Get out and volunteer for something that you believe in and those things you think will have the greatest impact on future generations.  Then you will have left a legacy on this planet to be proud of for those of your family members left to carry on after you have moved on into another world:

1996 Life Performance of "Volunteers" by Jefferson Airplane at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

We must raise our hands to volunteer, stand strong for our farmland's resources and make our voices heard in the hallways of the Congress and State Legislatures across the Nation.  As one of our greatest elected officials of all time, President Abe Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address: "Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."  We need to remind our elected officials about this fact.  Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln was shot for what he believed by a deranged actor after Lincoln had brought back to the country to unity and opened the door for others to live a free life instead of one in slavery.

Comments are by this individual writing the blog and no other company, nonprofit or other organization has approved or endorsed them. Am not a scientist, so can't claim my own scientific research but just comment on what is happening. These words are my sole opinion and no one else is responsible for these remarks. Anonymous comments not accepted. Stand up for your opinion. Thanks for your thoughtful and kind responses. Please keep language clean and our farmlands green. :)