Special Report
Missouri Farm Bureau retains Hurst, RFS support
Missouri’s Farm Bureau President began his second term Tuesday. Blake Hurst’s re-election Tuesday was unanimous and unopposed, which is not unusual in the Missouri Farm Bureau, but the election capped a couple of days of discussions about policy that wrapped earlier than expected.
The sense from the delegate body, according to Garret Hawkins, legislative director for the Missouri Farm Bureau, is that to delegates, there are a lot of policies, whether it’s the farm bill or estate tax reform and ultimately repeal, that continue to languish in Washington.
“They want something done,” Hawkins told Brownfield Ag News on Tuesday, as the Missouri Farm Bureau convention came to a close. “They’re tired of things just being idled in D.C. and they want to see a finale to the farm bill and so on…really they want some action.”
Delegates didn’t see a need for major changes to policy at the federal level, because the issues remain the same, said Hawkins. “They’re still on the burner for us.”
Significantly during policy formation, the Missouri Farm Bureau decided to maintain their support of the renewable fuel standard (RFS), the federal mandate to produce specific minimum amounts of renewable liquid vehicle fuel.
“There was a clear motion made on the floor to basically oppose or do away with the renewable fuels standard, which was probably good to have a clear and direct motion or an amendment offered so that there could be debate,” said Hawkins. “It was soundly defeated.”
The decision to maintain support for the standard is essentially the recognition that it’s not the RFS, but instead the drought, that’s creating the situation of high crop prices and hurting livestock producers, said Hawkins.
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