Mo. House creates special agriculture panel

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A new Missouri House committee will look into issues affecting dairy farmers and rivers.

House Speaker Tim Jones says he created the interim agricultural panel to develop policy recommendations in advance of the 2014 session.

The committee will be chaired by Republican Rep. Casey Guernsey, a cattle farmer from Bethany.

Guernsey said he wants the panel to discuss ways to help dairy farms, which he said are increasingly going out of business because of rising costs.

He said the committee also will look at river transportation issues that are important to agriculture, including the development of ports. He also cited concerns that a new National Blueways System encouraging conservation efforts could negatively affect farmers with land along the White River watershed.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.