Legislators discussed Missouri agriculture’s past triumphs and struggles for the coming year during the first ever Missouri State of Agriculture address on Jan. 29, 2014.

The State of Agriculture was attended by Missouri lawmakers from the Missouri House of Representatives and the Missouri Senate as well as members of the public. The meeting focused on both the achievements and emerging issues facing Missouri’s No. 1 economic industry, agriculture.

As chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee, I believe the event to be essential, because a few short weeks ago, I attended the Governor’s Conference on Agriculture. There was a great amount of information shared. Our hopes are to not only extend that information, but to further provide knowledge from some of Missouri’s leading agriculture industries. To shed light on more specific realms of the agriculture industry, I invited multiple speakers to present on behalf of their organizations or departments.

The director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Sarah Parker Pauley, was the first speaker at the meeting. She gave brief overviews of the new actions being taken by the department this year. Steve Taylor spoke on behalf of the Missouri Agribusiness Association, and St. Louis Agri-Business Club President Matthew Hardecke emphasized the impact agriculture has on the Missouri economy in both rural and urban areas. Hardecke stated that, unknown to most people, 61 percent of the gross domestic product of the St. Louis metropolitan statistical area is made up of agriculture and agri-business.

Drawing on the topic of urban agriculture, Sen. Jason Holsman gave the Kansas City point-of-view on the issues. He pointed out that urban agriculture offers the opportunity to keep our produce local by lowering imports during the off season.
To advance the economic discussion of agriculture, a financial panel made up of executive director Tony Stafford with the Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority and chief operating officer Jeff Houts with FCS Financial took questions from legislators and members of the audience to help clarify specific issues regarding lending and finances affecting Missourians.

I helped close the event by drawing attention to the longstanding tradition of agriculture in Missouri and the duty of Missourians to be diligent in our commitment to agriculture, and announced plans to make the State of Agriculture an annual event.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my office. Thank you.