Ag and Food Literacy Summit hears from state ag director

By Christina Rice

Missouri’s State Agriculture Director Chris Chinn delivered the keynote address at the Agriculture and Food Literacy Summit on March 14.

The event was hosted by Northwest Missouri State University School of Agriculture and held at the Mozingo Conference Center.

Chinn spoke about the importance of promoting agriculture to others. She encouraged everyone connected to agriculture to share their stories and to ask questions of consumers and find out why they are making the choices they are making. Throughout her many travels, she learned many consumers have misconceptions about food, food safety, antibiotics, hormones and proper care of animals.

She stressed agriculture needs all sorts of farmers, whether big, small, organic, non-organic, conventional or non-conventional, and asked those educating others about agriculture not speak ill of other farmers, stating “together, we all want a safe food supply.”

“Don’t throw other farmers under the bus. Don’t attack those who don’t support farmers, but draw attention to those who do support farmers. Always put your best foot forward,” she said.

Throughout her career she has traveled to Washington, DC, several times to speak with legislators, educating them about bills that would drastically harm agriculture. She encouraged the crowd to educate anyone they come into contact with about the importance of agriculture and to diffuse misconceptions about farming that are “rooted in fear.”

She went on to say that when farmers created labels such as “organic” and “GMO,” farmers did not mean to cause food confusion, they simply wanted to showcase what they were doing that was different than their neighbors.

“Farmers didn’t want people going to bed hungry because they were sacrificing in order to feed their children organic food,” Chinn said. “It’s important to share the stories. You can make a difference. You don’t have to have a title to make a difference.”

The meal was catered by Michael Foust, owner of the farm-to-table restaurant, The Farmhouse, in Kansas City. Foust is slated to open a new farm-to-table restaurant at the conference center named William Coy. He is still in negotiations with Maryville city staff finalizing details on the contract, but stated he has hopes of opening by May.

The restaurant will feature breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner as well as some grab-and-go items for golfers. Foust stated one of the grab-and-go items he is thinking about creating is homemade hot dogs from local pork.

He expressed gratitude to the community for receiving him with open arms, stating community members should be “proud” of their hospitality.

“We feel we succeed if you succeed. It’s a big thing for me to come to your house and cook for you. It means a lot to be here in your community. Everyone is needed. There are a lot of people to feed. I’m here to help any way I can,” Foust said.

University of Missouri Extension Farm to Institution Project Coordinator Lorin Fahrmeier held a live cooking demonstration for the crowd, cooking spaghetti squash with cherry tomatoes. She stressed the importance of cooking healthy meals and using local farm produce, stating healthy meals could be prepared quickly and did not have to be time consuming or expensive.

She also advocates for farm-to-school programs which would allow schools to purchase produce directly from local farmers at a lower rate, allowing farmers to make more and boosting the economy while providing fresh food for students.

Other speakers at the event included Northwest Missouri State University President Dr. John Jasinski, Morgan Young, Center for Food Integrity, and Rod Barr, Northwest’s director of the school of agricultural sciences.