Rolling in a tour bus though southern Missouri’s two-lane back roads, Republican gubernatorial candidate and Rolla resident Sarah Steelman is spreading her call for a repeal of the state’s ethanol mandate — and getting a double thumbs up from livestock farmers.
Frustration over Missouri’s mandatory sale of ethanol-blended gasoline frequently provided the most emotional political discussions Monday as Steelman took her 13-day, 59-town bus tour to places such as Houston, Mo., Hartville and Ava — where cattle, not corn, is the agricultural king.
Steelman pledged: “One of the first things I would do as governor is repeal the mandate.”
Steelman, the state treasurer, is running against U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof in Missouri’s Aug. 5 Republican gubernatorial primary. The winner is expected to face Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon in the November general election. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt is not seeking re-election.
Hulshof, who raises corn and soybeans on his family’s Bootheel farm, has been a staunch defender of a Missouri law that took effect in January requiring gas stations to sell a 10 percent ethanol blend whenever its price is no more than traditional gasoline. He contends it helps hold down the price of gas and reduces the nation’s dependency on foreign oil.
Steelman contends the mandated use of the corn-based fuel is driving up the cost of human food, livestock feed and even of gasoline itself.
A rift has started to develop in Missouri’s agricultural community between the row-crop farmers who dominate northern Missouri and the Bootheel and the livestock ranchers who are most common in the southern part of the state.
Wright County farmer David Pitts, 77, brought a color photograph of his family’s hog farm to show Steelman as she stumped at LJD’s diner in Hartville. Pitts largely blames ethanol for a doubling in the price of his corn-based feed during the past couple of years. He’s now losing $31 per pig, so Pitts is liquidating his livestock, slowly closing down his business.
“We just can’t afford to feed them,” Pitts said. “Ethanol is not going to last. It’s just too bad that a lot of people like us are going to be out and are never going to be back” in business.
In Houston, a series of people at Steelman’s campaign event complained that the ethanol mandate was contributing to rising food costs and lower gas mileage for vehicles, and was hurting their lawnmowers and chain saws.
“It needs to be stopped,” 94-year-old W.T. Scheets said emphatically.