U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill talks to lab technician Mindy Rigby at Mid-Missouri Energy in Malta Bend during the senator's tour of the ethanol plant Thursday, Aug. 30. While in the lab, McCaskill told about problems her group had finding E-85 pumps during the 4-day tour of Missouri's farms and agribusinesses. McCaskill and her staff rented the Missouri Corn Grower's E-85 Suburban to drive in for the tour. McCaskill made a stop at MME during the third day of her four-day tour of Missouri's farms and agri-businesses. McCaskill said her tour had allowed her to meet with the "salt of the earth" and get a chance to listen to the people who will be impacted by the 2007 Farm Bill scheduled for debate on the Senate floor this fall. (Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge]

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., spoke to a small crowd gathered at Mid-Missouri Energy in Malta Bend on Thursday, Aug. 30, during the third day of a four-day farm tour of the state.

The tour was designed to give the senator a chance to listen to farmers and agribusiness leaders prior to the Senate's debate on the 2007 farm bill. McCaskill took a brief tour of the ethanol plant with MME board president Ryland Utlaut of Grand Pass, before speaking briefly and then launching into a question and answer session with members of the audience.

"I have spent the last three days doing something that really was way more fun than anyone should be allowed to have," she said, adding she has "learned a lot" during the tour, which continues today, and will include 13 stops.

"I have been seeing the salt of the earth the last 3 days, the men and women who have made agriculture the cornerstone of our economy, have fed the world and who produce the very best," she said.

McCaskill joked that she was doing something fairly unusual for Washington, "I'm trying to keep my mouth shut and listen," she said.

"The nicest thing about what I am hearing is that I know I am hearing it from the people who are living what the farm bill does," she said.

McCaskill said her goal at the end of the "process of the farm bill" was not that complicated.

"I want to make sure the young people of Missouri can stay on the land doing what has happened for generations in this state, and that is producing the very best," she said. "I also want to make sure that we don't wake up one day and everybody is working for somebody else. I want Missourians to be able to work for themselves."

Opening up to comments from the audience, McCaskill touched on the concerns she had been hearing about blending all the ethanol being produced and the lack of infrastructure selling ethanol.

"We rented the (Missouri) Corn Grower's Suburban for this tour so we have been running on E-85 for the last 10 days," she said, adding it has been very "tricky" because they have had a hard time finding E-85 pumps in the state.

While answering questions from the audience, McCaskill was asked about specifics of the farm bill by local farmer Frank Swisher in the audience, who told the senator, "We don't want welfare."

"By and large, you're just like most of the farmers I've met. They don't want programs that pay them not to work. They want programs that make sure they can continue to work as hard as they always have," she said, adding that the subsidies have to be able to help "during times of crisis," but "not so generous they start messing up our foreign markets," she said.

She also touched on the subject of China, which she said "holds the note" for much of the United States war in Iraq.

"I know all of you farmers have had experience with your bankers, it's not easy to twist the arm of your banker. You've got to be nice to the banker. We're not as strong as we used to be in terms of leverage with China because they hold the note," she said.

McCaskill did cite recent problems with Chinese imported pet food, which killed several animals and the recent recall of Chinese toys containing lead paint.

"That tells the American consumer they need to start paying attention to what they are buying and where it is coming from," she said, adding, "That does more to hurt China and help us on the world market than almost anything I can think of."

She said that the pollution in China and the other problems point out that, "Although I know sometimes it is a pain -- all the environmental stuff that we do in this country -- in the long run it still makes us the envy of the world in terms of the quality of products we can turn out and the way that we take care of our land and our water," she said.

An audience member also asked McCaskill about regulating CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).

"I think there are ways to get at what you are talking about without classifying CAFO waste, which is manure, as a hazardous substance," she said.

She said two of the things that could be done are to support local control and also realize odor is an issue, adding that water control is regulated currently, but not odor control.

"By the way, I've been in concentrated feeding operations the past two days and I've been in some that really stunk and I've been in some that haven't. So it's possible to do this without stinking," she said.

McCaskill's tour continued today, Aug. 31, in the Missouri Bootheel.