Farm Bureau endorses Emerson in Eighth District

 Missouri Farm Bureau has endorsed incumbent Jo Ann Emerson, R-MO, in the Eighth Congressional District. From the news release:

Recognizing her long and distinguished record as a champion for Missouri’s farmers, ranchers, and their families, the Missouri Farm Bureau’s Eighth Congressional District FARM-PAC today endorsed Jo Ann Emerson as the best candidate to represent southern Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives.


“We feel Jo Ann Emerson is the best candidate to represent rural agriculture in Washington and we are thrilled to offer her our overwhelming endorsement,” said Jinks Wynn, Chairman of the Missouri Farm Bureau’s Eighth Congressional District FARM-PAC.

“Agriculture is at the heart our economy here in southern Missouri,” said Emerson, who today launches her annual farm tour. “Our farmers and ranchers provide the safest, most affordable food in the world and their concerns remain foremost in my mind as I go to work on their behalf every day. I am truly honored to have their support.”

A staunch opponent of the misguided and ineffective cap-and-trade policies that threaten to impose thousands of dollars in new costs on the energy our farmers use to fuel their tractors, combines, and transport goods to market, Emerson continues to lead the effort to reign in an out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With cap-and-trade proposals stalled in the Congress, the EPA is embarking on an effort to usurp the will of elected representatives in Congress, instead working to enforce these disastrous policies by violating the spirit of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

In fact, Emerson is currently cosponsoring legislation to reverse a decision made earlier this year by the Obama Administration’s EPA which threatens to impose thousands of dollars in new equipment costs on our dairy farmers by classifying spilled milk the same as do they do the BP Oil Spill – subject to control of the Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Program. Because milk contains a small percentage of animal fat, a non-petroleum oil, bureaucrats at the EPA believe it appropriate to force dairy farmers to install costly new storage tanks and develop costly emergency spill plans. All of this comes at a time when our nation’s economy remains stagnant and unemployment near record levels.

Emerson also continues to be a leader in the effort to open fair and expanded markets around the globe, an effort essential to increasing the sale of U.S. agricultural products worldwide. As Congress begins consideration of a new Farm Bill, Emerson is also working to ensure the bill provides solid and stable programs for the agricultural industry which is often full of risk and uncertainty. Ultimately, Emerson believes we must ensure farms and ranches in southern Missouri are not only successful, but in a position to be safely passed on to the next generation of producers.
“The success of our agriculture industry in the face of real challenge is a credit to the hard work and ingenuity of our farmers and ranchers in the Eighth District,” said Emerson. “We are working everyday to help our friends from more urban areas understand that policies in Washington have a real impact on the food we are producing right here in southern Missouri.”

FARM-PAC representatives from nearly all of the 28 counties in the Eighth Congressional District interviewed both Emerson and her Democratic opponent before overwhelmingly endorsing Emerson.