Advocates urge lawmakers to protect farms amid proposed budget cuts

By Hailey Sanford, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — The Capitol was a field of green Tuesday morning as farmers and food advocates from across the state, wrapped in matching green scarves, urged lawmakers to protect agriculture programs and healthy food initiatives amid proposed budget cuts.
Gov. Mike Kehoe’s proposed budget calls to cut more than $5 million in agriculture spending from Fiscal Year 2026 to Fiscal Year 2027 — a 7.8% decrease.
The second annual Local Farm and Food Advocacy Day brought together rural and urban advocates promoting locally grown food, small farms and community access.
Katie Nixon, a farmer and the director of New Growth Food Systems, organized the event with help from other organizations.
Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, spoke to the crowd about the importance of advocating for these issues. She said these issues are nonpartisan, common sense and about good government and stewardship.
“You just want to be treated fairly, and you want to be heard by your elected officials,” McCreery said.
A group of farmers and advocates went to speak with Rep. Wick Thomas, D-Kansas City. Thomas volunteers at Urban Produce Push, a Kansas City-based program that provides people with fresh produce.
Thomas said that the proposed budget would cut numerous programs but described agriculture policy as bipartisan.
Rep. Emily Weber, D-Kansas City, addressed the difficulties rural and urban legislators face trying to understand each other’s communities. Weber, who grew up in rural Kansas and now represents an urban community, said she is working to bridge that divide.
She described urban farms and their importance to the economy and the community.
“(Urban farms) are actually an industry that is bringing back to the community, that’s actually giving back healthy foods,” Weber said. “It’s a job. It’s employment. It’s also teaching a lot of our youth how to grow and maintain their own lives as well and be healthier.”
Former state Sen. Wes Shoemyer, now a board member at Farm Action Fund, broadened the conversation to federal policy, calling for a reinstatement of Country of Origin Labeling.
Country of Origin Labeling was required until Congress repealed it in 2015. Shoemyer hopes it will be reinstated when the United States renegotiates the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement later this year.
“I always found it amazing that if they imported a dog bone for your dog, it had to have the country of origin on it, but if you got some hamburger for your kids, it didn’t,” Shoemyer said. “Now, I kind of think our children and our families are just as important as our dogs.”
After the rally, the advocates met with legislators from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in hopes of convincing them to invest in local and regional food infrastructure, expand access to land, promote fair and competitive food markets, support locally grown food and align agriculture policy with economic development and public health policy.
Clay Jarratt is the director of programs at Urban Produce Push and is married to Thomas. Jarratt said that the Kansas City organization distributed almost one million pounds of food to over 120 organizations last year. The group aims to provide people with nutritious, fresh food and to prevent food waste.
Alana Henry serves as the executive director of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council in Kansas City, and she said her organization’s initiative aligns with the Make America Healthy Again priorities.
“One thing that our collaborative has talked about extensively is what it looks like to make sure that we’re easing pathways for food, nutrition prescriptions, food access programs and also supporting food businesses,” Henry said in the meeting with Thomas.
Maggie Samborski, who has three farms in the Kansas City area, told Thomas that Supplemental Nutrition Access Program benefits can be used to purchase vegetable transplants — an option she said most recipients are unaware of.
“I’m just really an advocate that people have the right to grow their own food, those rights be protected and they be enhanced. Like, there should be no restrictions, in my opinion, on people’s ability or right to grow food,” Samborski said.
The farmers were buzzing to speak with their lawmakers.
Nixon told the eager advocates, “Go out there today and make space for yourselves. This is your house. You pay for it. Don’t feel like you’re imposing.”