BUSH LISTENS, RESPONDS TO AREA FARMERS

Surrounded by straw and farmers, Gov. George W. Bush made his way to the podium Thursday with sweat pouring down his face.

"It is just like campaigning in Texas," he said. "It's hot."

The sun beat down on a makeshift parking lot at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port near Scott City. Bush told the crowd that China should be opened up to Missouri farm products and that President Clinton should sign the tax cut so that farmers would not be penalized for passing on the family farm to the next generation.

For Gary Lincoln, a part-time farmer in Marble Hill, the message hit home. He said something needs to be done to get the prices of farm products up and maybe selling to China is the answer.

"I'm all for it if it will help generate better prices," Lincoln said.

Erwin Rassel, a farmer in Perry County, said the inability to get good prices is hurting the industry and will kill off a lot of family farms if it continues.

"We need those markets," Rassel said. "We need them real bad. I don't think we have too much food. We just can't get it to everybody."

Rassel said he agreed with just about everything Bush had to say -- a sentiment that Lincoln noted too. Lincoln said he has heard Bush speak on television, and after hearing him speak in person he has become a supporter.

"I think he is a very godly man and an on-target man," Lincoln said. "I think he will help get the country back on track."

Bush's appeal to the farmers won support because he assured them he would uphold the integrity of the office.

"He made me proud to be an American again," said Teddy Bennett, head chef at James Bayou Cookers in East Prairie. "What we have now is a big joke. The man in there now has no morals."

Bush said it takes both money and faith to overcome the farming problems. He said the Adopt-A-Farm ministry is something that fills the spiritual void that money cannot solve.

Mary Myers, the president of the ministry based in Sikeston, said when the ministry started in the 1980s there were similar problems: The prices were low and people were losing their farms. She said the ministry has helped about 11,500 families nationwide.

She said the ministry helps people go through tough times by hooking them up with people who have been there. Most of the people who use the service are from other parts of the country.

"When farmers are in trouble, they don't want their neighbors to know about it," Myers said.

She said in some cases farmers call and are suicidal. But she said there are answers, and with the help of people such as Bush, the ministry will grow and farmers will be helped through their crisis.

"We tend to keep the families around after we help them," Myers said. "The spiritual help they needed couldn't be provided by any government agency."