Santa Fe High School students Logan Kirchhoff and Danielle Heimsoth give Governor Matt Blunt a tour of Santa Fe High School during the governor's visit Friday, Feb. 15. Blunt was in Alma to speak to students and staff at the school and employees, stockholders and business people at Alma Meats. (Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge]

Gov. Matt Blunt was in Alma on Friday, Feb. 15, visiting with students at Santa Fe High School and business people and stockholders at Alma Meats.

Although this was Blunt's first time at the school, he is not the first governor to speak there.

"Gov. Blunt is the third governor in a row to visit Santa Fe High School, one of the top-performing districts in the state. I am pleased to have the opportunity to show him what we call Santa Fe Pride," said state Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, who extended the invitation to Blunt.

Although it was an early out day for the students, a group of honor society students, FFA members, teachers and legislators, including Stouffer and state Rep. Joe Aull, D-Marshall, were on hand to meet Blunt, who explained why he stopped at the school.

"This is known as a school that focuses on excellence year after year," he said, commending students, teachers and staff for the school's accomplishments. Santa Fe has a student population of 212 students and has maintained a 100 percent rating as the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Districts of Distinction every year the governor has served.

Blunt first took a tour of the school before briefly speaking and then answering questions from the audience. He was on his way back from the bi-state governor's summit with Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius.

One audience member asked the governor, who recently announced he wouldn't be running for re-election, what his future holds.

"I have no idea, I really don't," he said. "My life's sort of been in decades. I was in the Navy for a decade, I served in state government for about a decade, so we'll see what we do the next ten years."

Blunt was able to personally greet the students and staff on hand before moving across town to Alma Meats, the town's second largest employer, next to the school district.

At the new generation farmer-owned cooperative, he listened to Jerry Bublitz, chief executive officer, briefly explain the operation, which produces and distributes value-added agricultural products throughout the Midwest.

The governor then took a tour of the processing plant before stopping in the conference room to speak to employees, stockholders and area business leaders.

"I have been here once before when I was a candidate for governor," said Blunt, who congratulated the group on the growth of the plant, acknowledging the changes that have been made since that time.

"I'm pretty bullish about the future of agriculture," he said. "Agriculture always has been, is today and I really believe always will be the foundation of Missouri's economy. With the revolution of the animal health science and plant science, I really think it is an exciting time to be in production agriculture."

He went on to say new generation cooperatives like Alma Meats, which add value to agriculture products, help family farmers as well as provide jobs for rural Missourians.

Blunt also spoke about plant-based renewable fuel co-ops, noting that several farmers involved in Alma Meats may also be involved in both kinds of co-ops. He said "outsiders" often pit the two kinds of producers (livestock and grain) against each other and often make corn-based ethanol a scapegoat for higher food prices.

"They ignore all the other factors, including much higher gasoline prices, natural gas prices that have driven up the cost of fertilizer and a tremendous growth in global demand for every agricultural commodity. Those are the real reasons commodity prices are high," he said.

He also said he didn't think that high commodity prices are a bad thing, adding they are probably in the state's best interest.

"I think we ought to celebrate that this is a vibrant time for agriculture in Missouri," he said. "I think plant-based renewable fuels are part of America's energy future."

He also talked about the B-5 standard proposed by Stouffer, which would require that all diesel fuel sold in Missouri contain at least 5 percent biodiesel made from soybeans.

"It makes sense, it helps add value to our soybean acres across the state and it is a very good fuel in terms of the energy equation," he said.

"Biodiesel is a very efficient fuel," he said, noting that one energy unit of input yields 3.2 units of energy output. "That's a pretty good energy equation in my opinion," he said.

Blunt said if the B-5 standard is passed, it would not only help reduce Missouri's dependence on foreign oil, but also would reduce carbon dioxide emission by 168 million pounds.

"That's a lot of carbon dioxide."

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net