Your Opinion: Farm Bureau's attack on Conservation

Dear Editor:

I've seen and read Dan Cassidy's hypocrisy in the Missouri Farm Bureau article, "Strengthening Conservation Good for Everyone."

I am infuriated by the Farm Bureau's reckless use of good ink. The Missouri Department Conservation was constitutionally created as a politically independent organization. As the Farm Bureau encourages legislators to force changes within the department, they stray further and further from the intent of the 1937 Missouri constitution amendment.

Politicians are dithering creatures that do not have the capacity to manage without compromise. Legislators will over time trade favors at the expense of the conservation of Missouri's vast resources.

The first concern in the Farm Bureau article is narrow and spitefully directed at the one eighth cent conservation sales tax. Isn't it ironic that the Farm Bureau would ask legislators to call for a sunset of taxes for which they have no control? Wouldn't it be more straightforward if the legislators called for a sunset of the many taxes they do have control of? And yet the Farm Bureau complains that those of us that can see through their rhetoric have mischaracterized their actions.

The second concern of the Farm Bureau article is that the number of commissioners of the Missouri Department of Conservation is too small. One of the Farm Bureau's mouthpieces in the Senate is a man by the name of Munzlinger. He has endorsed a bill that increases the number of commissioners to the department of conservation. An increase in the number of commissioners he believes would be a positive change. I wonder would the same logic apply to the Senate. Would an increase in the number of senators be a positive change?

From my perspective, we would be better off with fewer senators. I fully understand the breath of conservation lies within the hands of private land owners. I am pleased the conservation commission's division of private land services recognizes our mutually held belief.

It is unfortunate that the Farm Bureau doesn't encourage more conservation practices among their members. The reputation of agriculture, not the conservation commission, should be the focus of the Farm Bureau's concern. It is a widely held belief with environmentalist and ecologist that agriculture is mankind's most environmentally destructive activity. We have much to do for the benefit of conservation. And, the Farm Bureau's attacks against the conservation department are their most hypocritical course of action.