REDUCING BIG GOVERNMENT IS A GOOD GOAL

Speaking of government regulations: U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson struck a responsive chord recently during the annual Rural Restoration Conference sponsored by Adopt a Farm Family of America in Sikeston. She told farmers of the never-ending efforts to reduce Big Government and its onerous regulations for everything from global warming to clean water.

She was preaching to the choir for the most part. Farmers certainly are familiar with the weight of government regulations. Emerson went so far as to call government regulation "the enemy right here at home."

Environmental issues are of particular concern. Farmers tend to have a special affinity with the soil and water resources on which their livelihoods depend. As a result, they are stewards of these resources in ways that government never quite seems to comprehend. Instead, the government solution is to impose regulations that aren't practical, work against the common-sense approaches of farmers and often are counterproductive in the effort to protect valuable resources.

There is some reassurance, as evident at Rural Restoration Conference, that some federal legislators have heard enough from their constituents to know that too much government regulation in general can be a burden that makes the nation less productive and prevents the private enterprise of fiercely independent farmers from making the most of their land.