Blunt, Childers and CAFOs

Ken Midkiff

A few months ago Governor Matt Blunt and his Department of Natural Resource's Director - Doyle Childers - met with the editorial board and a few reporters of the Joplin Globe. This was quite unusual. It is almost unheard of that a Governor visits a newspaper and meets with the editorial staff. While there were a number of issues on the table - educational funding, tightening Medicaid requirements, the state budget - Governor Blunt and Director Childers went down to Joplin to talk about Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, otherwise known by the acronym CAFOs. The position of the Joplin Globe was most problematic for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). The Globe had published several critical articles about the proposed poultry CAFO near to Roaring River State Park. A Globe editorial was issued in opposition to CAFOs. The Letters to the Editor section carried numerous complaints from citizens. The Globe's offices are in Joplin in the heart of Jasper County - the most conservative area of a conservative state. Just south of Joplin, in McDonald County, large poultry operations of Tyson's and Simmons have long existed. Moark, owned by Land O' Lakes, has massive egg-laying operations in Newton and McDonald counties - within the Globe's area of coverage. Yet, the newspaper had taken a position opposed to those very operations - and in doing so had incurred the wrath of the Governor and the MDNR Director. Both Blunt and Childers were avid proponents of this "modern" style of meat, milk and egg production, and agribusiness lobbyists had heavily courted both. It is telling that these two placed agribusiness interests so high on their list that they traveled to Joplin from Jefferson City (a 4 hour drive) to attempt to change the position of the Globe. It is not at all unusual for a Governor or an MDNR Director to call the Kansas City STAR or the St. Louis POST-DISPATCH about some real or perceived slight or mis-reporting. But, it is extremely rare for the Governor or MDNR Director to show up personally in newspaper offices. This had never occurred at the offices of relatively small newspapers, such as the Joplin Globe. Blunt had declared that no decision effecting agriculture was made without consulting the Farm Bureau and the Farm Bureau had long been an advocate for CAFOs. Other players had also trekked to the Governor's Office: Missouri Pork Producers, the Poultry Federation, American Dairy Association and the Cattlemen's Beef Association. Even organizations representing non-meat producers such as the Corn Growers Association and the Soybean Association also supported the large meat, milk and egg industry, presumably because corn and soybeans are the primary ingredients in the feed of cows, hogs, and chickens. The Governor's visit to the offices of the Globe did not change things at all. In the words of one reporter, "We listened respectfully, and then went on doing things the same way." The editorial staff and reporters at the Globe understand what the Governor and the MDNR Director do not: CAFOs pollute the environment, reduce the quality of life of long-time rural residents, destroy local economies, disrupt communities, and run independent family farmers off the land. We need more brave and intelligent editors and reporters. The Globe is to be thanked for its stance. Governor Blunt has announced that he will not run for re-election. Presumably, Director Childers - appointed by Blunt - will no longer head up the agency charged with protecting our state's natural resources. Maybe now the motto of MDNR will be changed from "Protecting Polluters" to "Pollution Prevention".