Last month, the Missouri Department of Agriculture laid off its ONLY employee devoted to sustainable agriculture because of “lack of resources”. The Department administration also proposes to eliminate the very popular Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Awards program.

This was done on the same day that the University of Missouri-Columbia announced a new four-year undergraduate program in sustainable agriculture [see “About Agriculture” for details].

Sustainable Agriculture is the fastest growing and most talked-about agriculture in Missouri. The Department of Agriculture received an adequate budget to fund the Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Awards. Eliminating the program comes from not listening to what the taxpaying consumers want—not lack of funds.

The Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Awards program provides much-needed new research and ideas that make farms more profitable, helping eliminate subsidies and being a win-win situation for taxpayers and farmers.

Here are just three examples of how the knowledge gained from the Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Awards benefit Missourians:

1) Kenneth Suter and Mark Trump developed a custom mineral supplement specific to their cattle and soil. They made the data available to Extension specialists, who developed the Trump-Suter Mineral Calculator—a software program available to cattle producers throughout the Midwest.

2) Bill Regan experimented with Integrated Pest Management to reduce pesticide use in his greenhouses. The Missouri Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the Jefferson Institute, got an EPA grant to take this information to growers throughout the state.

3) Mark and Julie Price, owners of A Taste of the Kingdom in Kingdom City, received two Demonstration Award grants. With the first, they encourage Missouri growers to produce chili peppers for their value-added products such as hot pepper jellies. Six growers produced 7.5 tons of chilies. The second grant explored new marketing approaches in the Midwest that would allow a network of Missouri growers to compete with growers from California and Mexico.

These three farmers obviously benefited other farmers in Missouri, as well as themselves. Look through the last few years of Small Farm Today, under stories labeled “Small Farms, Big Ideas” for other farmers who received the Award and used it to produce beneficial ideas.

Missouri led the way in the Midwest in receiving more grants in 2003 from the USDA Sustainable Research and Education Program than any other state in the North Central region. Missouri is blessed with many creative and innovative people. Why would the Department of Agriculture want to stop this flow of ideas that benefit farmers as well as consumers? I can think of no good reason to discontinue the Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Awards program and its employee, and lots of reasons it should continue.

If you feel as I do—that the benefits of this program far outweigh its costs, and that agricultural money would be best spent by helping family farmers and sustainable agricultureÑyou need to write to Governor Bob Holden (Missouri Capitol Bldg Rm 216, PO Box 720, Jefferson City MO 65102-0720; 573-751-3222) and Director Pete Hoffher (Missouri Dept of Agriculture, PO Box 630, Jefferson City MO 65102; 573-751-3359). Ask them to keep the program going, or to expand it by giving it more money.