2001, I saw the dealings of our State Agriculture Dept up close when I was on Gov. Holden's advisory counsel. 33 commodity people....egg growers, corn growers, cattlemen, turkey growers, pork group, etc.....then the token "organic" farmer's market member. We traveled the state doing site visits to different businesses.....ethenol plant owned by a group of corn farmers, university R&D growing plots, eau d' vie development lab, grain distribution space with GMO detectors for foreign business....2001 remember,........
there were open hearrings with the public (normally farmers, but a good 20% were activists/concerned citizens.....about that time puppy mills were in a huge mess). At that time we learned about farmers aging out and land/training not being affordable nor available to the young incoming.....we learned of the poverty ripple, where usually the wife works off the farm for insurence & income......we learned how gov't regs benefited the huge industrial farms/processors ie, an organic dairy farm had to have certain equipment that was (not essential) mandated and outrageous cost prohibitive.....
I can remember sitting at dinner near the Sec of Ag and overhearring a conversation about lawsuits and CAFO's. The state was pushing hard for them.....
Farm Bureau was intrinsic in the department. It was almost tramatic to realize that our elected officials were really into supporting CAFO's. I got to see one of our senator's facilities at one of the dinners at his farm. I was the only one that asked for a tour.
Every where we stopped to eat, I'd ask if the food was grown in MO. really tee'd off the Dept of Ag guys......who missed the point that if your farmers are in bad straights buying from them and hosting events at places that provide local food (storied food) will help them....(DUH). We had an entourage of 50+ people going around the state for 6 weeks, there was alot of money being spent on feeding us. Everytime we ate, I would talk to my dining neighbors about what was available at the farmer's market.....how local blackberries were so much better than whatever was coming out of CA....get them to remember their mom's cobbler's or pies. Tell them what city (STL) folks pay for food....eggs freaked them out, compared market prices to Whole Foods.....at that time the market was new and the concept of "growers only market" in MO was novel. At that time there were an awful lot of good stories to grab their interest. Bet some are still in Cheftalk's archives.
The Dept Head of Ag hired a 23 year veteren of Monsanto to moderate the conference.....any guesses on his agenda?
Funny, later on we requested transcripts of the tapes from the sunshine law.....seems red tape runs deep.
Barack Obama's White House Chef Choices Announced! 
