“Every August, I embark on one of my favorite journeys throughout Missouri’s Eighth
Congressional District: the annual Emerson Farm Tour.  It is a tradition begun by Bill Emerson 25 years ago, and we have upheld it every year since.

 

For six days or so, I criss-cross Southern Missouri, visiting farms, orchards, ranches,
agribusinesses, dairies, timber forests and other agricultural places of business in our district. This year I am even taking a course in grading timber!  Even though many of these operations have been around for years and in family hands for generations, our way of doing business changes.  To stay up to speed on the issues facing our farms and ranches, I make my annual visit.

 

There, I see new technologies, learn about new products, and hear about new challenges faced by Missouri’s producers.

 

The Farm Tour is an annual opportunity to listen to our farmers and ranchers, who represent a basic building block of our rural economy.  It is also a chance for me to share with them the goings-on in Washington, D.C., which affect them.  This year, it is especially important to have this one-on-one discussion, because Congress is about to take up reauthorization of the Farm Bill.

 

For that reason, I have already joined Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Bob Goodlatte, and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, at Missouri forums on this important topic.  During their visits, these key policymakers learned the unique facts of our Southern Missouri agricultural background.  They discovered that we grow or raise pretty much everything on your grocery store shelves but citrus and sugar.  They found out that we are one of the northernmost cotton and rice-producing districts in the nation.  And they saw that Southern Missouri’s farmers, ranchers and agribusiness leaders are a smart, savvy and hardworking group that deserves the best representation we can give them.

 

For the purposes of rewriting the Farm Bill, properly representing our farmers and ranchers means keeping intact the programs they rely upon.  It means assuring they can continue to provide the world’s safest, most abundant food supply.  It means supporting a rural way of life that keeps family farms in the family and promotes local management of local land.

 

We have a bright future of value-added agriculture, and alternative, renewable fuels in particular are an important part of tomorrow’s ag markets.  In addition to corn-based Ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel, cellulosic Ethanol holds a tremendous amount of promise.  Products we struggle to find a purpose for today may become major fodder for our economy tomorrow.  Corn stalks, rice straw and fast-growing switchgrass may soon be a new staple for Ethanol production, converted from ag “extras” to fuel for our cars and trucks by tiny microbes.

 

Neither is cellulosic Ethanol the only science at work in our fields.  All over our state,
researchers, scientists and ag experts are coming up with innovations that add to the possibilities (and to the value) of our agriculture produce.

 

Our farmers, ranchers and agribusiness experts are all business leaders with a keen eye for their important industry, but I also enjoy meeting with our Southern Missouri producers because we share common values of hard work and dedication.  I take their ideas and their values back to Washington with me, and they will motivate me as I represent our district on agricultural issues and the upcoming Farm Bill.

 

So look for me in August, coming soon to a farm or ranch near you!”