In today’s BeefBuzz, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays is talking with Mike Deering, Executive Vice President of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, about the organization’s success at advancing policy initiatives that benefit Missouri cattle producers.
“It is largely because of our membership,” Deering said. “We have a grassroots program called ‘Cowboys at the Capitol.’ We have our members at the Capitol every single Wednesday at legislative sessions, to where it isn’t lobbyists, it is producers talking to legislators.”
The strategy of success doesn’t stop there. Deering explained further, “We are also engaged in the process, and we elect leaders who have common sense and an appreciation and understanding of the importance of that industry, not only to our state, but also to feeding the country.
He noted that the organization strongly supported Missouri’s new governor, Mike Kehoe, a Missouri Cattlemen’s Association member and producer.
“He gets it,” Deering stated. “When it comes to agriculture, he is going to make it a priority of his administration, and we are quite blessed because his predecessor, Mike Parson, was a member and producer as well. Getting the right people elected is half the battle.”
Deering admitted that getting members to show up at the state Capitol every Wednesday wasn’t easy to do, but it boiled down to helping them understand how much legislation affects their operations, both in short- and long-term applications.
“We’ve been able to pass policies in the state that do yield an immediate short-term benefit, whether that is stopping the taxation of disaster assistance in our state so that producers can use that money in its entirety,” Deering detailed. “That puts money back in your pocket instantly.”
The association also led the first reduction in farmland property taxes in Missouri’s history. They helped change laws related to limited liability so that a rancher isn’t immediately issued a citation and made to appear in court.
“We stress to producers that everything that we do, everything that we talk about really means that we need to have our grandkids in mind when we do those things, because the biggest threat to agriculture is the aging farmer,” Deering asserted. “If we don’t repopulate the land with the next generation, we are going to have serious problems.”
He noted that as time passes, each generation is further and further removed from the family farm, so legislative protections like the Right to Farm language added to the Missouri constitution through the efforts of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association and its members are becoming more and more important.
“The Right to Farm has benefitted our state. We were very happy to do that back in 2014; ever since then, the Humane Society of the United States and other extremist organizations have not been present at our Capitol,” Deering shared. “That ended it, that day.”
Currently, the organization’s focus is on private property rights. “Missouri is kind of the energy highway for the East Coast,” Deering commented. “So we have transmission lines coming in at an insane pace, and they are sending all of that energy to the East Coast and taking private land for private gain, and it is wrong, so when it comes to eminent domain, we are still pretty laser-focused on that.”
He admitted that the organization isn’t opposed to eminent domain but pointed out that it was always intended to be used as a last resort for critical needs and infrastructure in the state.
“It was not intended to be used by out of state for-profit private companies that come in, stomp all over landowner rights and take private land for private gain,” he asserted.
The organization is also focused on legislation related to mRNA vaccines and the labeling of beef products. “That legislation in Missouri is a trial attorney’s dream come true,” Deering explained. “It basically allows anyone to sue any farmer to prove what vaccines they used, etc. First and foremost, there is no mRNA vaccine approved for use in the beef cattle industry whatsoever, but that burden of proof would still be on the producer.”
The legislation also relates to using GMO products in the production of beef. “So, any steer that at GMO feed grains, which is almost all of the feed grains, would have to be segregated and the product would have to be labeled separately,” Deering described. “How in the world would you do that? I don’t know, but litigation would prove that somewhere down the line. It would devalue Missouri commodities and set our industry back in a big way. We have some legislatures who are so anti-vaccine that they are not focused on science or the detriment that they would cause to our industry.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show, and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
