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New MO FSA director: livestock markets ‘a focus’
The new Missouri Farm Service Agency director says he’s focused on listening to the concerns of farmers and ranchers around the state.
Joe Aull tells Brownfield he wants to be the voice of the Biden administration within ag and help connect producers to beneficial programs…
“And then I also want to be voice to the administration, to the folks in Washington; the voice of the farmers, the other people in the agriculture industry,” he said.
The former member of the Missouri House Agriculture Policy Committee, and ranking member of the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, said one of his first focuses is fairness for farmers and ranchers within livestock and poultry markets.
“I hear a lot from ag producers [that] they’d like to get more money, maybe a little bit better pricing structure for some of their products when they sell,” Aull said. “That’ll be a goal of mine.”
Aull said the Biden administration has already pledged $1 billion of Recovery Act funds to the price imbalance between livestock and grocery store prices across the country.
“I think that’s pretty typical of what you’re going to see across the state,” he said. “I think you’ll see quite a bit of federal money dumped into a lot of these agriculture programs. That’s going to be a good thing, I think, for farmers and other people in the industry.”
Aull said the challenge will be working to distribute coming money fairly in the ‘best way possible’.
