BY DAN CASSIDY

Winston Churchill once said, “History will be kind to me. I intend to write it.” With August 5 rapidly approaching it can be said Missouri farmers and ranchers have every intent of writing history by passing Constitutional Amendment #1—Keep Missouri Farming.

For those who wonder what the hullabaloo is about perhaps a history lesson would be useful. Missouri remains an agriculture state with more than 99,000 farms. Agriculture is important to our economy as marketings approaching $10 billion support more than 300,000 jobs. Our food system cannot be taken for granted; it requires a great deal of skill and technology still hasn’t been able to overcome the vagaries of Mother Nature.

Amendment #1 will update the Missouri Constitution by stating “the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state.” This sounds simple enough but a group based out of Washington, DC, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is leading opposition to the language. Again, some history will be helpful.

In recent years, HSUS has used the legislative and ballot initiative process to promote their radical animal rights agenda. They have bankrolled campaigns in states including Florida, Arizona, Colorado, California and Connecticut. In 2010, HSUS was successful in placing language on the Missouri ballot aimed at reducing the number of commercial dog breeders. Among other things, Proposition B prohibited ownership of more than 50 female dogs. There was no rhyme or reason for the arbitrary number–it just sounded good at the time.

More than $4 million was spent promoting Proposition B in Missouri, and HSUS contributed more than half of the total raised. In fact, more than 80 percent of the funds to promote Proposition B came from outside Missouri. Nearly 75 percent originated in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California.

Proposition B won statewide by less than two percent. It failed in 103 of Missouri’s 114 counties yet passed by large margins in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas. Opponents, including many of the state’s agriculture organizations, were outspent roughly 9 to 1. It came as no surprise HSUS and their East and West coast contributors focused on the metro areas where their large advertising budget could replace a non-existent ground game. The impacts of Proposition B were so bad the Missouri General Assembly was forced to make changes in early 2011.

All is not the same for Round #2. Campaign records show HSUS is financing essentially all of the opponents’ campaign efforts. They may well again target large advertising buys in the metro areas as the campaign comes to a close. We anticipated opponents’ use of scare tactics and outright lies. Yet this time, using history as a guide, farmers and ranchers have gone on the offensive and are working together to protect not only themselves but consumers as well. In the end, we believe history will show Missourians stood up for their agricultural heritage and sent a message that grassroots and common sense can indeed trump scare tactics and extremist agendas.

Dan Cassidy, of Fulton, Mo., is the chief administrative officer for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.