Every now and again, right action actually is taken by a mainstream news source. It’s a real joy when the happens….:)
Here’s the Joplin Globe’s editorial on Amendment 1:
July 13, 2014
Our View: Vote no on Amendment 1
Proponents of Amendment 1 — the Right to Farm Act — have not made their case. We’ve met with advocates of this amendment to the Missouri constitution and listened to their arguments, but we don’t believe they have adequately answered the central question: Who is it protecting, and from what?
We understand that many small farms are struggling, but threats to their livelihood aren’t going to go away because of the vague wording in the proposed amendment. In fact, this amendment could hurt them.
Darvin Bentlage, a Barton County farmer, made a compelling case in this newspaper that what’s threatening small, independent family farms is big ag — corporate ag — which is what some critics think this amendment is designed to protect.
“I remember our right to farm when we didn’t have to sign a grower’s contract to buy seed, a document telling us what we could and couldn’t do with what we grew on our farm,” Bentlage argued. “I remember when family farmers could load their own feeder pigs in their truck and go to the local auction and sell their livestock in an open and competitive market. So who’s taken this right to farm away from us? It is the same corporate factory farm supporters, corporations and organizations that have pushed this constitutional amendment through the Missouri Legislature.”
The ballot question asks, “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure the right of Missouri citizens to engage in agricultural production and ranging practices shall not be infringed?”
Infringed by whom? What practices? And who qualifies as a farmer in Missouri?
Smithfield Foods, for example, owner of Premium Standard Farms? How about Tyson Foods? Both of those are Fortune 500 companies that count their revenue in the billions.
Which Tyson practice “shall not be infringed,” the one that left more than 100,000 dead fish in Clear Creek this spring?
It’s Missouri that may need protection from big ag.
Proponents of the amendment point to environmental and animal rights organizations — “radical, out-of-state groups,” they call them — but most of the family farmers we know don’t fear laws aimed at protecting Missouri’s water and air. They already behave as good stewards of the environment because they live on the land they farm and drink the water from their own wells, and they treat their livestock humanely.
We suspect critics of the amendment are on to something when they say this is a measure designed to protect corporate agriculture rather than the traditional family farm.
In fact, we’d be better off making sure that public ownership of water, for example, and the right to clean water and clean air are enshrined in the state constitution.
That’s an amendment we can get behind, but we can’t get behind Amendment 1.
Truth Farmer 
Jul 15, 2014 @ 13:23:09
Truth Farmer, in Michigan we have what is widely thought to be the strongest Right to Farm Law in the nation, since in 1999 our RTF Act was amended to prohibit any kind of local regulation over farms meeting Right to Farm criteria. In Michigan, that means that you have to be a commercial operation and you have to be compliant with the GAAMPs. Commercial is easy – even selling a single egg counts. And, since the GAAMPs regulations were largely written by farmers for farmers, those conditions have been pretty easy to meet as well.
In recent years small farmers in both urban and rural areas came to realize that our RTF law is so broadly written that it protects us as well, and we started using it to protect our rights to keep things like backyard chickens.
This has created an uproar in Michigan, with our state agricultural agency, our state farm bureau, and even some state legislators doing everything they can to ensure that RTF continues to protect the big guys, while eliminating this protection for folks in urban areas and in rural areas surrounding urban areas, at least. Since 80% of Michigan is ‘urban’, and since local ordinances rarely permit the keeping of even small numbers of small livestock in these areas, the net result is that it may soon be illegal for most folks in Michigan to keep even a single chicken. Meanwhile, corporate agriculture will continue to enjoy extraordinary legal protections under Michigan’s Right to Farm Act.
All of which is to say that I agree that the current purpose of Right to Farm is to protect and enable corporate agriculture at the state level, across the 50 states. In Michigan we are fighting back in a different way than is currently being done in Missouri. Here we are working to maintain Right to Farm protection for small urban and rural farms at the same level that corporate farms enjoy, since that at least means that folks who are fed-up with what corporate ag is producing can legally grow their own food on their own property.
Thanks for your good work on this issue in Missouri, and for creating a space where folks can talk about important issues like Right to Farm.
Jul 28, 2014 @ 11:09:54
https://truthfarmer.com/2014/07/02/amendment-1-is-destructive-to-independent-agriculture/
A local radio host’s guest said he couldn’t see where the Monsanto agenda was anywhere in the wording of the Right to Farm and that “modern technology” had been taken out. It is true that “modern technology” was take out and it was replaced with “Food Security” which is an actual UN registered Agenda. It’s being pushed by the who’s who of the political radical left , like Bill and Melinda Gates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other wacko groups like the Rockefeller foundation.
http://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/food.asp
http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/brett-begemann-global-food-security-panel.aspx
http://blog.ucsusa.org/small-farmers-not-monsanto-are-key-to-global-food-security-272
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/our-work/current-work/food-security
http://monsantoblog.com/tag/food-security/
Actual full text of the Missouri Right to Farm Constitutional Amendment
That Agriculture which provides food, energy, health benefits, and SECURITY is the foundation and stabilizing force of Missouri’s economy. To protect this vital sector of Missouri’s economy, the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state, subject to duly authorized powers, if any, conferred by Article VI of the Constitution of Missouri.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that Corporations have the same rights as people (ranchers and farmers) in this case.
I think the agenda is clear with this Constitutional Amendment – unfettered use of the land, in the form of Missouri mega farms like Chinese owned Smithfield, GMO Crops from the likes of Monsanto that control 90% of the patented crops in the world and are looking to corner the market worldwide.
And if you don’t sell your family farm or grow our patented crops or follow our agenda, then you are violating the Security of Missouri and not only breaking the law, but probably are a domestic terrorist to boot. Oh and by the way, if our patented crop pollen blows into your non-GMO field, not only can we sue you because you broke our patents, we also have the Missouri Constitution and the United Nations on our side because you are threatening the food security of the people.
Monsanto and companies like Chinese owned Smithfield donating large sums to the Hog industry are putting the money in for this Right to Farm campaign. The animal rights groups are smoke and mirrors and the bogeyman for this, they are Johnny come latelys to even put money in.
Vote NO on this anti-American garbage
Jul 30, 2014 @ 10:21:07
I believe that this amendment is for the large ag corporations and the little guy be damned. Our legislators do not have our best interests in sight. Look what they did to proposition B. Doesn’t matter what it stood for it passed by the people and they turned right around and eliminated regardless of the vote. That tells you something about the moral caliber of our legislators. I think it is time to get rid of these guys who support large ag. Vote no on amendment 1 and vote your legislator out of a job.
Jul 30, 2014 @ 23:24:48
Excellent video of why Monsanto wants protection with the Right to Farm Scam