Group may ask repeal of livestock law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A leading state farmer group may push for a full repeal of a recently enacted livestock pricing law, a Senate committee was told Thursday.

The Senate Interim Committee on Agriculture and Improving the Rural Economy met to gather public input for possible legislation for the 2002 legislative session, which begins in January. Other issues discussed included boosting incentives for ethanol use and reducing state regulations on farmers.

Leslie Holloway of the Missouri Farm Bureau said the organization may endorse the elimination of the new livestock pricing bill if it doesn't have the desired effect of boosting prices.

The General Assembly convened in a special session in September to make changes to a 1999 law that was intended to bar meatpackers from discriminating against small producers. That law had the unintended consequence of driving packers out of the Missouri market and causing livestock prices to plummet.

The new law, which was signed by Gov. Bob Holden, removed provisions that allowed producers to sue packers for alleged price discrimination and more clearly defined what constitutes price discrimination.

State Sen. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico and committee co-chairman, said he was unaware of any complaints since the new statute took effect. Cauthorn was a sponsor of the revised law.

Holloway said the Farm Bureau is monitoring the situation.

"We know that prices are not where they were a year ago," Holloway said. "We are in the process of checking with ranchers to try to compare where they are to where they were."

Ethanol issue

Gary Marshall, chief executive officer of the Missouri Corn Growers Association, asked the committee to consider legislation to boost demand for fuel blended with ethanol and provide financial incentives to build more ethanol production facilities.

There are two such plants in northern Missouri, with a third planned in Southeast Missouri at Malden, Mo. Marshall said another $12 million to $15 million a year in financial incentives from the state would allow for the construction of more facilities.

Greater use of ethanol would provide an additional market for corn growers, Marshall said. Missouri could provide enough corn to produce 140 million to 200 million gallons of ethanol a year without adversely affecting other industries that rely on corn, such as livestock and poultry producers.

Marshall also asked for tougher enforcement of an existing law that requires state agencies to purchase ethanol-blended fuel for their vehicles when it is available and competitively priced.

"Not a lot of state agencies are enforcing that," Marshall said.

The topic of state regulations on farmers and other agricultural industries was addressed by several of those who testified.

Most called for greater cooperation between the departments that have oversight over various aspects of farm production, like agriculture, natural resources, conservation, health and economic development. They also asked that regulations be based on sound science or firmly established need and be consistently enforced.

"We don't have difficulty so much with the regulations as with the basis for those regulations," said Don Nikodim, executive director of the Missouri Pork Producers Association.

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