Your Opinion: Questions on congressman's support for agriculture

Dear Editor:

Protecting Farmers. Re: Congressman Luetkemeyer's July 18 letter to his constituents.

Surely we all want to protect our farmers, especially those on small farms who have somehow managed to escape being bought out by some huge corporation.

Luetkemeyer shared with us that he used to raise hogs and that he still own a 160-acre farm. I'm sure he does not want the government to step back from all legislation: I'm sure that he is not against regulating how much animal refuse can be flushed into our creeks and rivers from small or large farms? Surely there must be some middle ground where the government can assure the quality of the food and the environment without laying impossible regulations on the backs of farmers?

Does he care about the treatment of chickens and beef during their entire life cycles? Does he approve of the extreme shortage of government regulators who are supposed to regularly visit and report on the feed lots and cramped, disease-laden chicken pens? Does he care that many of these animal torturing factories are rarely monitored because of Republican cuts to monitoring governmental agencies? And does he want to have less regulation?

I buy from local farms when I can, at farmers' markets or health food stores. But when eating in restaurants, I know that most if not all of the chicken, beef and pork I eat have been subjected to severely inhumane treatment. The restaurants cannot afford to buy from the pricier wholesome farms nor are they allowed to do so. Why not? Because most of the wholesome farms are not licensed by the federal government to sell to restaurants, because they (the small farmers) can't afford the licensing fee. How ironic: the unwholesome, possibly tainted, under-regulated food is licensed while wholesome food is often not regulated and thus cannot be served in any restaurant?

The bottom line question is: does he support the small farmer who is struggling to survive, or does he support the agricultural giants who generously contribute to not only to Luetkemeyer and fellow Republicans' campaigns but also to the Democrats'?

We your constituents want to know.