MOFB's "Cut to the Chase": Don't CAP Our Future!

By Garrett Hawkins

Like most farmers, my father rarely leaves the house without his cap—that is unless he is on his way to church or a funeral.  In some respects the farm cap, whether emblazoned with the Farm Bureau logo or that of a local livestock market, seed company, or implement dealer, is a symbol of the American farmer.  The farm cap has also come to symbolize a grassroots movement to defeat one of the worst pieces of legislation of our time, cap-and-trade. 

Supporters of cap-and-trade legislation say it is a market-based solution for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing supposed man-made global warming.  They claim such a system will foster clean energy development, create ‘green’ jobs, and bolster the U.S. economy.

Missing from their sales pitch, however, is the hit agriculture and other energy intensive sectors will take when energy prices jump and we all feel the pinch when paying our heating/cooling bills, putting fuel in our vehicles, and buying food for our families. 

Proponents of cap-and-trade succeeded in pushing legislation through the U.S. House of Representatives, but they underestimated the number of people across the country not sold on the idea of paying for inflated energy prices or the notion of man-made global warming.

Farm Bureau members are among them.  Through American Farm Bureau’s “Don’t CAP Our Future” campaign, farmers and ranchers nationwide sent a clear message to Congress:  Don’t cap our future by imposing higher energy costs and more regulations. 

Farm Bureau members from Washington State to Florida and from Maine to Hawaii joined in collecting tens of thousands of signatures on postcards, letters, caps and banners urging lawmakers to defeat cap-and-trade.  Thousands of letters were signed by Missourians alone in the Farm Bureau building at the Missouri State Fair, at county Farm Bureau meetings and during our organization’s annual meeting. 

The message was delivered to U.S. senators March 10 with a special presentation from the AFBF board of directors and state Farm Bureau presidents.  Missouri Senators Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill will soon receive a hat signed by county Farm Bureau presidents with the reminder, “Don’t CAP Our Future.” 

Discussions of cap-and-trade legislation appear to have stalled in the Senate.  Some lawmakers and political pundits go so far as to say it is dead.  Even if that proves true, those pushing a flawed global warming agenda will not give up, which is evidenced by the Environmental Protection Agency’s backdoor approach to regulating greenhouse gases.

My hat is off to the many farmers, ranchers, small business owners and concerned citizens who tell our elected officials “Don’t CAP Our Future.”  Please continue to stand up and speak out.  If you don’t, we know who will. 

(Garrett Hawkins, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the director of national legislative programs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)