Wheat and Soybeans

We have come upon the eve of the election and we soon find out who will be Missouri’s next governor. Will it be incumbent Jay Nixon or newcomer to politics Dave Spence? Even though the campaigns are almost over, there is one more topic that can be covered in terms of comparing the candidate’s rhetoric to each other and to journalism. That subject is agriculture.

With most of Missouri being rural, agriculture is a huge industry.  It is also a subject that Spence and Nixon mostly agree on. They both believe that Missouri’s governor must step in and stop the farming regulation coming out of Washington D.C. As Missourians, they both know the importance of the agriculture to the state and its economy, as well as knowing that the industry needs help. They have also both been endorsed by various farming groups such as the Missouri Farm Bureau for Spence, and the Missouri Soybean Association for Nixon.  But both also have different plans on fixing the problems in the industry.

Nixon is more concerned with creating a wider market forMissouri products around the world bringing more income to Missouri farmers and the economy. Nixon even traveled to China to make an agreement with the Chinese that resulting in 4.6 billion dollars of Missouri good being exported to China. Nixon has also signed bills to improve conditions for farmers, recognized various farmers and agricultural programs and visited farms affected the recent droughts and that have received some form of aid during his tenure as governor.

Nixon is once again relying on his record in convincing people that he is the best choice to continue growing Missouri’s agriculture industry. This is one issue where Nixon also tries to be bipartisan by signing bills that both the left and right agree need to be put into action. Nixon is not trying to attack Spence on this and is attacking more concerned with the actual issue at hand.

Spence also want to help the agriculture industry, but by treating it more like a business. This falls into his platform that he is not a “career politician” but a businessman who can lead. Spence plans on stopping the farm regulations and reorganizing the way the industry is controlled in the legislature.  Spence believes that this is the best way for the industry to get back on its feet.

This plan goes back to the fact that Spence is focused on the economy and running the Missouri government as a business. Because Spence is a business man, if he can explain why this is a good way to run a state, he can garner more support. He also gone on record saying that Missouri relies too much on agriculture and another way he can fix the current problems is by diversifying Missouri's economy. Which is also something that he as a business can help with.

Spence is also attacking Nixon on his inaction of stopping farm regulations that have been thrown at Missouri farmers. As it has been mentioned before, Spence is trying to convince the public that Nixon leadership should be doubted and that he knows what it best for the state because of his background in business.

This race and the current droughts have caused agriculture to come up frequently in journalism. Many times it is not called agriculture but instead called farming, unless it is talking about a program, such as an academic agriculture program. Farming seems to be more personal of a term rather than agriculture and more people can feel a connection with farming and farmers. Journalism also brings up agriculture a lot because politicians see it as an important subject. 

Many candidates have been visiting farms, trying to pass bills pertaining to agriculture, and speaking to agricultural groups trying to find out what they want/need. This brings a lot of press coverage to the industry as well as its problems.  In one way this is good, because if more people know what is going on more people are inclined to help. On the other hand, politicians use agricultural and those in the industry as a way to gain free press. They influence the press into giving them and the industry a lot of coverage. Overall, while the press covers agricultural simply because it is important to Missouri, it also provides candidates and politicians an opportunity to persuade the press to cover them and gain free press.