(AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering closing another campsite on Table Rock Lake.

The corps announced Monday that the Viney Creek Recreation Area near Golden, Mo. is targeted for closure.

Lake manager Greg Oller says federal funding for Table Rock was reduced $600,000 this year.

Another problem for Viney Creek is that it doesn’t have a commercial marina, although it does offer campsites, a playground area and swimming area.

Oller says boaters will have seven other nearby public areas to use to gain access to Table Rock Lake.

(AP) — Kansas City law enforcement officials are considering improved security for the city’s County Club Plaza entertainment district.

The effort comes after several young people created disturbances Saturday night at the Plaza, the latest in a series of such events in recent years.

Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté will meet with his top commanders Tuesday to discuss the security plan.

The plan could include undercover officers patrolling the streets and possibly a detention room to take young people who are causing trouble until their parents or guardians pick them up.

Forte said Monday the trouble-making youths will “no longer be tolerated.” But he says the long-term solution has to involve more than police, including parents and efforts to offer young people more activities.

(AP) — Missouri senators have given preliminary approval to a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would increase protections for gun owners.

The measure endorsed Monday would go before Missouri voters in November.

The amendment would define the right to bear arms as “unalienable” and require the state to defend against any “infringement” of that right. It would also include defending one’s “family” with a firearm as a guaranteed constitutional right.

Sponsoring Sen. Kurt Schaefer, of Columbia, says the change would ensure that future gun regulations are heavily scrutinized by Missouri’s courts.

The amendment would specify that the Legislature could still impose restrictions on gun ownership for convicted violent felons and the mentally ill.

The proposal needs one more Senate vote before moving to the House.

A Kansas City woman was killed Monday evening when the car she was driving was hit by a car fleeing police.

Police say they began pursuing the man’s vehicle after it sped away from what is a well-known drug house.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol twenty-eight year old Christopher B. Stewart of Kansas City was driving a 2000 Chevy Malibu eastbound on Shawnee Drive in Wyandotte County. A KCK Police officer was chasing him.

Graciela E. Olivas of Kansas City was northbound on 34th Street in 2005 Chevy Cobalt. Stewart ran the stop sign at 34th and Shawnee Drive and struck drivers side of the Cobalt. Steward and Olivas were both transported to KU Medical Center. Olivas was pronounced dead just after 10:30 p.m.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Philanthropist Howard Buffett wants his fellow farmers to pay more attention to soil health and consider using cover crops.

Buffett, who is the son of investor Warren Buffett, is co-sponsoring an invitation-only conference focused on the benefits of cover crops in Omaha this week.

Buffett focuses most of his giving on helping farmers in developing countries learn to cultivate more. He says American farmers could also benefit from using cover crops to nourish soil.

Cover crops are plants in between growing seasons to help control weeds, prevent soil erosion, and promote soil health.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Natural Resources Conservation Service are also sponsoring the event. Some of the sessions will be broadcast to groups of farmers across the country.

 Two people were injured when a Semi Truck overturned in Jackson County Monday night.  According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol the crash occurred as 30 year old Jason L. Gillispie of Higbee, Mo was driving a 2009 Peterbuilt west on I-70 at mile post 18.

The truck drifted off the right side of the road, struck a sign and overturned in the ditch. Gillispie and a passenger 28 year old Ashley Gillispie were transported to Centerpoint Hospital. They were both wearing seat belts.

(AP) Making a false report that jeopardizes school security procedures or causing false fears that lead to a lockdown could result in a felony charge under legislation before a Missouri House committee.

The bill was prompted by a TV news story about school security last month that led to a roughly 40-minute lockdown at Kirkwood High School in St. Louis County. A reporter for KSDK-TV visited four elementary schools and the high school. At the high school, he came into the school, asked to speak with security and then left.

KSDK-TV has apologized and led a newscast stating that though unintentional, its actions caused stress and fear.

by Dan Murphy

A powerful white paper has been circulating through the agricultural community for the last month or so, and it should be required reading. Not necessarily for producers — those who participate in the business of animal agriculture already relate to most of the findings noted in the report — but more so for policymakers, legislators and the media.

Titled, “Animal Feed vs. Human Food: Challenges and Opportunities in Sustaining Animal Agriculture Toward 2050,” the pretentious title masks a hard-hitting study researched and written by a veritable who’s who of veterinary and animal sciences. Its conclusions are succinct and straightforward:

• Global animal agriculture provides safe, affordable, nutrient-dense foodstuffs that support human health and valuable by-products, such as edible and inedible components, medicines, lubricants and other industrial uses.
• Livestock production is critical to economic and social sustainability, especially in developing countries, and supplies considerable “horsepower” for smaller farmers integral to food production around the world.
• Large tracts of land are incapable of growing human food crops because of terrain, soil and climate, but of that acreage can be used for grazing or forage that can be sustainably converted by ruminants into food products.
• The gains made by recycling otherwise valueless by-products from human food and fiber production lessen competition between humans and animals for crops that can equally be used for feed or food, maximize land use efficiency and decrease the environmental impact of food production.

All true, all accurate and all serving as a rebuttal to the chorus of critics insisting that the only choice for the entire planet is either feed crops or food crops. And we know which way their inclinations lie.

Unfortunately, none of the bullet points above represent common (or conventional) wisdom, even after I took the liberty to edit them down to a more reasonable length with simpler sentences. Yet if one were to ask 100 people on the street if they’ve heard that raising beef (or “factory farming”) is responsible for damage to the environment, I’m willing to bet you’d get a majority of them to say emphatically “Yes.”

A simplistic ‘solution’

Therein lies the problem. Despite the eminently practical, sensible statements summarized by the scientists who wrote the report, those conclusions don’t resonate with consumers or policymakers the way that “eat less meat and save the planet” seems to do.

Of course, the truth is that no matter how wildly successful the Meatless Mondays and Go Vegan crowd were ever to become, the dent those campaigns might put in Americans meat consumption would be insignificant compared with the projected increase in per capita meat consumption among the billions of people climbing into the middle class in China, India and across South Asia. It’s not going to matter — at all — if millions of Americans were to skip a hamburger or three every few weeks, because not only will global consumption of animal foods continue to increase simply as a function of the world’s still-increasing population, but as incomes rise, so does demand for beef, pork poultry, dairy and eggs.

In the face of growing demand, and the pressure it puts on food production and processing systems, sustainability thus becomes critical. The simplistic option of switching the cultivation of feed grains to food crops doesn’t address all the facets of sustainability, however, because it involves not just energy consumption, or resources conservation but a broader issue of economic and social viability, as well.

The most widely used definition of sustainable development (from the UN World Commission on Environment and Development) is that it involves systems and processes that “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

That obviously raises issues of energy conservation and protection of water and irrigation resources. But simply switching crops from feed to food won’t address global growth in demand for animal foods, nor does it assure the availability and affordability of nutritious foods for all of the planet’s population.

More importantly, a crop rotation scheme would negatively impact economic and social sustainability. Without livestock production to generate income, billions of the world’s poorest people would go hungry and go broke.

What’s ultimately the most important factor in promoting sustainability is efficiency. If farmers and producers grow more livestock, with less feed and fewer inputs, sustainability is enhanced and extended over time. That’s where all industries, not just the food industry, should focus: Doing more with less — less energy, less raw material, less of an overall environmental footprint.

That’s the ticket to sustainable future, not one where we try to switch corn crops and trade in meat for mush.

› To access the CAST report, log onto www.cast-science.org/publications/?animal_feed_vs_human_food_challenges_and_opportunities_in_sustaining_animal_agriculture_toward_2050&show=product&productID=278268

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.

(AP) – The Missouri Senate is reconsidering its position on legislation that would require stolen guns to be reported to law enforcement.

Senators took steps Monday to strip the requirement from a larger bill that would seek to nullify some federal gun control laws. It would have required gun owners to report the missing weapon within 72 hours of learning about the theft.

The Republican-led Senate initially approved the amendment last week, but stripped it out after the National Rifle Association announced its opposition. The NRA says it would lead to a gun owner registry.

The amendment’s sponsor, Democratic Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, says Republicans are blindly following the NRA. She added that the reporting provision would have helped curb urban crime.