Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn Archives

Southeast Missouri getting $3 million in CARES Act funding to expand rural broadband

August 20, 2020 By Missourinet Contributor

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing nearly $3 million in the expansion of rural broadband internet service to southeast Missouri. During a Zoom call Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senator Roy Blunt and Missouri Ag Director Chris Chinn announced the federal CARES Act funds are going to Big River Communications for the expansion.

Southeast Missouri getting $3 million in CARES Act funding to expand rural broadband

Chad Rupe, the USDA’s administrator for rural utilities service, says the funding will provide broadband to thousands of Missourians.

“Big River Communications is receiving a $2.9 million award to lay over 53 miles of high-speed fiber broadband to connect 4,839 people,” he says.

Perdue says the funding will help to sustain rural communities.

“We’ve got some wonderful communities out hear in which many people love to live but if they’re disadvantaged and cannot connect to the global marketplace, that’s a real disadvantage,” says Perdue.

Chinn says the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s goal is to have 90% broadband coverage in the state by 2025 and the CARES Act funding will help to speed up the timeline.

Construction is set to start next month, and the first availability of the new broadband is expected by the end of the year.

By Will Robinson of Brownfield Ag News

Vote delayed on proposed loan program for Missouri cities struggling during coronavirus

June 16, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The state Development Finance Board has delayed a vote on a proposed low-interest loan program for smaller Missouri cities who have experienced financial pain from the coronavirus. Executive Director Bob Miserez tells Missourinet the $5 million plan could be limited to Missouri towns with a population of 25,000 or fewer.

Vote delayed on proposed loan program for Missouri cities struggling during coronavirus

“We didn’t know how much that limited amount of funds was going to really impact and be meaningful to the largest cities in the state,” he says. “Plus, they’re a lot more sophisticated and they do have access to other programs. They’re going to be hurting also but we didn’t know that we would be meaningful and have a real impact to them.”

Miserez says all but about 29 Missouri cities could qualify.

The board is considering a loan minimum of $50,000 to a maximum $300,000 to help cover essential services like police, fire department and waste management.

“There’s a lot of programs out there that can help small businesses,” he says. “We could also, but we didn’t see that kind of assistance going to local governments and we knew that they were going to be facing budget shortfalls. When you get to a point like we got this year where the revenues just fall off the cliff, how do they then match what they’re not receiving to pay the costs that they’ve already obligated themselves to pay?”

Members are looking at a plan that could include loans between one year and four years with a stair step interest rate structure. Under the initial proposal, cities who would get a loan would be required to shell out a $1,000 deposit.

“Basically to escrow – to help us offset the costs of developing this and the legal to develop the loan documents, which are going to be fairly simple but then we’re not going to charge any loan origination fees thereafter. We were proposing that upon approval and funding of a loan that the $1,000 be rebated back to them. In effect, it would cost them nothing to apply,” says Miserez.

If approved, the program could be up and running by mid to end of July. The board could vote on the proposal later this month.

Board members include:
• Marie Carmichael, Chair
• Reuben A. Shelton, Vice Chairman
• John E. Mehner
• Matthew L. Dameron
• Kelley M. Martin
• Bradley G. Gregory
• Cliff Holekamp
• Mike Kehoe, Lieutenant Governor
• Rob Dixon, Director, Missouri Department of Economic Development
• Chris Chinn, Director, Missouri Department of Agriculture
• Carol Comer, Director, Missouri Department of Natural Resources

(VIDEO) Localized meat shortages, higher prices for some items possible in Missouri

May 1, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Customers hoarding toilet paper during the coronavirus outbreak might want to pay attention. Missouri Department of Agriculture Director Chris Chinn says widespread food shortages are not expected but localized meat shortages and increased prices for some items are possible. During today’s press conference, Chinn says much of the food supply depends on a “just-in-time” delivery system.

Cows by a fence (photo: Happy Fence Friday, Larry Brown)

“For some agriculture products, we are experiencing bottlenecks with processing raw farm products into the items that you see in the grocery store,” she says. “A lot of work goes into bottling milk or preparing a package of steaks or pork chops. As food processing businesses slow down production or sometimes close due to COVID-19, there will inevitably be market disruptions.”

Chinn says as of early April, Missouri farmers stopped dumping milk because of supply chain disruptions.

She backs President Donald Trump’s executive order to reopen closed meat processing plants since the Homeland Security Department deemed agriculture as “critical infrastructure” in March.

Chinn says meat processing workers are unsung heroes that ensure the food reaches the dinner table and they play an important in America’s food security, just like farmers and ranchers.

“There are protein processors of all sizes from major companies all the way down to small mom-and-pop businesses in the state of Missouri,” she says. “They all matter. They mattered before COVID-19 and they matter today.”

After some Missouri meat processing plant workers tested positive for the coronavirus, the state began doing mass testing at some sites in St. Joseph and Saline and Moniteau Counties.

View today’s entire press briefing below:

Task force gets some positive news on Missouri spring flooding potential

February 24, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The National Weather Service says Missouri faces above-average flood risk this spring because soil is still saturated from last spring’s flooding. About 1.2 million acres of Missouri farmland was damaged by flooding in 2019.

Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn (Photo courtesy of Brownfield Ag News)

But, Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn says the Governor’s Flood Advisory Task Force has received a glimmer of good news from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the potential for spring flooding.

“The reservoirs up north right now have more storage capacity than they did last year at this time. So that’s a positive piece of information that we were really glad to hear,” says Chinn.

Chinn is a member of that task force. She farms in northeast Missouri’s Clarence.

“Last year at this time, we had a really deep freeze in the ground. Right now, we don’t have that,” she says. “So, we’re not going into the spring in the exact same situations that we were last year.”

Chinn says a lot of farm ground is unprotected.

“We do have a lot of levees right now that have not been able to be repaired because the water simply did not recede,” she says.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture, Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River are hosting meetings in northwest Missouri March 2nd and 3rd for farmers to meet with state and federal emergency management officials and the USDA’s RMA, FSA and NRCS agencies to ask questions and share their concerns.