'No' to foreign farming

In his April 22 guest column, "The truth about Right to Farm Amendment," Dale Steffens ignores what we learned in grade school: The constitution is the law of the people and not of agriculture corporations and their foreign partners.

Last year alone, one Chinese company acquired 50,000 acres of Missouri's farmland and now has the right to farm in three counties in Missouri. Missouri state statutes do limit foreign corporations' ability to take over Missouri's agriculture and food system, but if Constitutional Amendment 1, Mr. Steffen's so called "Right to Farm" passes, it would void that protection and give foreign corporations the same rights to farm as our traditional family farmers currently have.

In an article published March 26 in Mother Jones, Tom Philpott asked the right question, "Are We Becoming China's Factory Farm?" Recent reports give us a clear understanding of why. They show more than 40 percent of China's arable land has already been degraded by pollution with 20 percent considered fully polluted. Do we want our state to be the "Factory Farm" for foreign corporations? Who do you want for your neighbor?

Our constitution was written to protect us -- not foreign corporations. And that is why consumers and many family farmers are joining together to say "vote no" on amendment 1.

BRIAN PHILLIPS, Cape Girardeau