SPRINGFIELD (AP) – The city of Springfield is playing host to the North American Manure Expo next month.

The University of Missouri Extension Service says in a release that the free expo on nutrient and manure management is scheduled for July 8-9 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds. The event will include demonstrations, classes and opportunities to talk to industry regulators and representatives.

The expo’s theme this year is “valuing manure and the environment.”

KANSAS CITY (AP) – The impact of a proposed amendment to Missouri’s Constitution that would guarantee residents’ right to “engage in agricultural production and ranching practices” is unclear, with some on both sides of the issue questioning whether it would have any impact at all.

Supporters of the measure on the August ballot say it gives farmers more legal standing to challenge unfair regulations, while opponents fear it could unravel environmental and animal welfare laws.

The Kansas City Star reports the “right to farm” amendment is the result of lingering wounds from the 2010 fight over a ballot measure enacting strict regulations on dog breeders in Missouri.

North Dakota passed a “right to farm” amendment in 2012, and several other states are considering similar action.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – A community garden run by the Kansas City Municipal Court has become so popular that it has doubled in size.

The garden is used by participants in the city’s drug, mental health and veterans’ treatment courts. It started last year and was expanded this year to a 40-by-50-foot plot.

Judge Joseph Locascio, presiding judge of the municipal court, works along with the participants in the garden. He says it offers participants a therapeutic, healthy activity.

Sometimes, working in the garden is a light sanction for people who miss curfew or a meeting. But most of the gardeners ask to be there while going through their court programs.

The Kansas City Star reports similar community gardens have taken root across the state in juvenile courts and domestic violence shelters.

OZARK (AP) – A southwest Missouri man who’s featured with his wife on a billboard supporting legalization of marijuana says the drug helped him deal with spinal disorders.

suffers from degenerative disc disease and stenosis of the spine. He’s undergone three spinal surgeries and took prescription painkillers until he suffered what he said were potentially deadly side effects.

Bertrand started growing marijuana in 2007 to deal with his pain, but was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to probation.

Court battles led Bertrand and his wife, Patricia, to learn more about Show Me Cannabis, an organization that plans to file an initiative petition seeking a marijuana decriminalization proposal for ballots in 2016.

The Springfield News-Leader reports the billboard featuring the Bertrands along Interstate 44 was installed before Memorial Day.

MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s crunch time at the Supreme Court.

The justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks.

Among the big questions: the religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest.

Summer travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon for the justices — but only after the court hands down decisions in all the cases it’s heard since October.

In rare instances, the justices will delay decisions and order more arguments again in the next term.

This is also the time of the year when a justice could announce a retirement. But the oldest of the justices, 81-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has signaled she will serve at least one more year, and maybe longer.

BY REBECCA FRENCH SMITH, Missouri Farm Bureau

Take a moment and ask yourself who the last person in your family to farm was. Was it Dad? Grandpa? Great-grandpa? How many generations has it been? While the vast majority of the population today is not involved in agriculture, we all depend on it for basic needs.

On August 5, Missouri voters will have the opportunity to vote for Constitutional Amendment #1. In its simplest form, Amendment #1 will be a tool among several that will help ensure all farmers in Missouri — northern or southern, large or small, conventional or organic, row crop or animal production, or any combination of these — have the ability make the best decisions for their farm based on the situations and challenges they face. It will help ensure they can use legal methods and technologies to grow and raise food, their businesses and their families, and give them recourse should they be challenged. With rights come responsibilities and nothing in Amendment #1 will protect bad actors.

When you look at those who support the amendment, you will see farm organizations made up of members who are family farmers. You will find Missouri farmers who own large farms and small farms, who farm their land in different ways.

With ambitious plans, organizations and interest groups have come into Missouri to change the way farmers do things, without fundamental knowledge of the unique set of circumstances that exist on every farm. They use broad strokes, deep pockets and emotion, not necessarily science or experience, to influence those in the state who do not have firsthand knowledge of Missouri’s farms. They create fear in consumers and then use that fear to further their agendas through various avenues, including the political and legal process.

The challenges farmers and ranchers face in the plains of southeast Missouri vary greatly from those faced by the ranchers and farmers of southwest Missouri where the Ozark Plateau sits. While the climate is similar, the terrain and soil are vastly different. Compare those two regions to northern Missouri, where farmers face a different set of challenges. Mid-Missouri, caught between these regions, might have a bit of both depending on where you are on the east-west continuum. These challenges are only the physical land characteristics. Add in financial capabilities, labor needs and any number of business variables and you begin to recognize the unique dynamic that exists on each farm. So, naturally, farmers are concerned with farming methods, with the ability to use technology in a way that benefits both farms and consumers.

Opponents to the amendment would have you believe there is a hidden agenda, driven by foreign entities and large corporations, which is interesting, given that one of their main supporters is a large national activist group, the Humane Society of the United States. But this time we’re not talking about puppies, we’re talking about Missouri’s number one industry and economic driver, and the choices you have when you go to the grocery store.

Farmers are the “boots on the ground” when it comes to this issue. They are on the front lines. They know what works and what doesn’t. They are the solvers of the challenges faced in feeding and clothing all of us, today, tomorrow and 50 years from now. And they’re asking you to say “yes” On Amendment #1 on August 5th.

Rebecca French Smith, of Columbia, Mo., is a multimedia specialist for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.

LUDLOW- A Missouri man was injured in a crash at 10 p.m. Saturday night in Carroll County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Ford Taurus driven by Ryan P. Carter, 30, Kearney, Mo., was northbound on County Road 151 three miles south of Ludlow. The vehicle traveled off the east side of the road into a field and struck an embankment.

Carter was transported to Hedrick Medical Center in Chillicothe.

The MSHP reported he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.