USDA Archives - Missourinet

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

Missouri families receiving food stamps to get their benefits extended

July 29, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The USDA has approved the state’s request to extend pandemic food stamp program benefits through August. Missouri households receiving SNAP benefits will automatically get the maximum benefits loaded onto their Electronic Bank Transfer card.

Missouri families receiving food stamps to get their benefits extended

“I am very pleased Missourians will receive the maximum SNAP benefit for their household size during a month when families are buying needed items for the upcoming school year,” says Jennifer Tidball, Acting Director, Missouri Department of Social Services. “Those maximized SNAP benefits may allow families to spend their income on essential items their child needs for a successful return to the classroom, an important part of the ‘Show Me Strong’ Recovery Plan.”

As of June 30, nearly 373,000 Missouri households or 773,079 individuals receive Food Stamp/SNAP benefits.

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.

Missouri gets another $61 million in federal broadband money to connect rural areas

January 28, 2020 By Missourinet Contributor

USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Donald “DJ” LaVoy. Photo by Jeremy Shields KKWK

Compiled from press release and on-site reports

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Donald “DJ” LaVoy joined Governor Mike Parson in Trenton, Missouri to announce another $60.9 million for high-speed broadband infrastructure that will create or improve e-Connectivity for more than 11,000 rural households, 81 farms, 73 businesses, 16 educational facilities, 12 critical community facilities, and two health care facilities in rural Missouri. The USDA’s ReConnect Pilot Program will support another five projects in Missouri:

Mid-States Services LLC will use a $3 million loan to provide unserved and underserved members in and around Trenton, Mo., with Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband services. This investment is expected to reach 566 households, a highway patrol office, and an elementary school.
Total Highspeed LLC will use a $20.1 million loan and a $20.1 million grant to build a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to improve broadband services to families and businesses in rural Greene County. This investment is expected to reach 8,683 households, 20 pre-subscribed farms, 15 pre-subscribed businesses, eight critical community facilities, 12 educational facilities, and a health care center.
Gascosage Electric Cooperative, serving Camden, Maries, Miller, Phelps, and Pulaski counties, will use a $7 million loan and a $7 million grant to develop a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network for its most rural areas. The investment is expected to reach 20 pre-subscribed farms, 20 pre-subscribed businesses, 1,177 households, and two fire protection districts.
Green Hills Telephone Corporation will use a $2.6 million grant to expand its Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to rural areas in Caldwell and Livingston counties. This investment is expected to reach 20 pre-subscribed farms, 20 pre-subscribed businesses, 546 households, a fire protection district and two educational facilities.
Marshall Municipal Utilities will use a $575,000 loan and a $575,000 grant to provide high-quality internet access to rural areas of Saline County. By expanding its current service area, an additional 21 pre-subscribed farms, 18 pre-subscribed businesses, 763 households, a private school, and a nursing home will have access to broadband.

In November of 2019, USDA awarded about $42 million to the Grand River Mutual Telephone Corporation to serve rural areas of Missouri and Southern Iowa.

Missouri U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt has pushed for broadband funding in the federal budget, supporting the $600 million for the program in 2018. The Blunt-backed FY2019 and FY2020 agriculture funding bills provided a total of $1.1 billion for the ReConnect Pilot Program.

Blunt said in a press statement, “The investment announced today marks another important step toward ending the digital divide that has left about one-third of rural Missourians without access to broadband. I’ll continue working with local, state, and federal officials to ensure every community has access to high-speed internet.”

Governor Mike Parson at the announcement in Trenton reiterated that there are ten school districts in Missouri that do not have broadband yet.

The state has given $5 million to match construction costs for broadband connections in Missouri. He has asked for another $5 million in the new state budget.

“If the rural coops can get electricity to every house in the state of Missouri, then we can get broadband to every house and every business in the state of Missouri,” he said.

Jeremy Shields of KKWK radio contributed to this report.

Missouri lawmakers on both sides react to governor’s State of the State (AUDIO)

January 16, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s governor proposed about $1 million in funding for witness protection during Wednesday’s State of the State Address in Jefferson City, in an effort to battle increasing violence in urban cities.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Color Guard presents the flags before Governor Mike Parson’s State of the State Address on January 15, 2020 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Governor Mike Parson’s (R) plan is being praised by State Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, who says witnesses fear retribution.

“I hear law enforcement say that very thing that there are people that they know that know who these individuals are that are committing these crimes but they’re scared to death to come forward because they don’t want to be the next victim,” Basye says.

Basye’s district includes Columbia, which had 12 shooting deaths in 2019. Columbia Mayor Brian Treece and Police Chief Geoff Jones were special guests of Governor Parson at the State of the State Address.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, Kansas City Police Chief Richard Smith, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards, Springfield Mayor Ken McClure and Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams were also special guests.

There were 194 murders in St. Louis and 148 in Kansas City in 2019.

Meantime, the governor received a standing ovation during his State of the State, when he announced that a new bridge will be built to replace the deteriorating Buck O’Neil Bridge in Kansas City. The bridge, which was built in 1956, crosses the Missouri River.

State Rep. Greg Razer, D-Kansas City, describes the project as huge.

“It’s a major, not just for the city of Kansas City but the entire region,” says Razer. “That’s a huge regional priority, it’s something that has to be done.”

About 44,000 vehicles use the bridge daily. Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Director Patrick McKenna tells Missourinet that federal, state and local funding will pay for the $200 million project. McKenna expects construction of the new bridge to begin in about two years.

Director McKenna notes Parson’s 2019 bridge bonding program created a substitute funding mechanism, adding that Kansas City has committed about $60 million for the project. A grant is funding $25 million more.

Governor Parson also praises economic progress happening in Kansas City, noting it beat more than 130 cities around the nation to land two major divisions in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), bringing more than 500 new jobs to the region.

Representative Razer praises the bipartisan and bi-state cooperation between Missouri and Kansas that took place, noting the jobs will pay about $100,000 annually.

“Kansas City is excited to welcome them (USDA employees) to their new home, to Missouri, to Kansas City,” Razer says. “We’re excited to have these 500 new Kansas Citians coming to Missouri.”

USDA is relocating its Economic Research Service (ERS) and its National Institute of Food and Agriculture Policy (NIFA) agencies to Pennsylvania Avenue in Kansas City.

State Reps. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, and Greg Razer, D-Kansas City, joined news director Brian Hauswirth live on Missourinet on January 15, 2020. They reacted to Governor Mike Parson’s State of the State Address and discussed other key legislative issues. Click here to listen to the first part of the interview:

Click here to listen to the second part of the interview:

Missouri’s commercial hemp program underway, applications available Dec. 16

December 5, 2019 By Ashley Byrd

Missouri’s new commercially regulated hemp program is moving forward, with sample applications available here.

Official applications will be available Dec. 16 and the Missouri Department of Agriculture will begin taking applications Jan. 2. Interested producers must complete a written application, create parcel maps and complete a fingerprint criminal history background check within 30 days of submitting their application. It costs $750 to apply and that fee helps fund the state’s program.

Department spokesperson Sami Jo Freeman says Missouri will be operating under an extension of the 2014 Farm Bill rules, allowing farmers to get seed in the ground in 2020 with no restrictions to acreage or number of permits. Once approved, a producer can grow industrial hemp in Missouri for three years. Freeman recommends that producers stay flexible under state protection as the federal government decides its final requirements and makes further changes. Interested and approved growers can give input to the USDA about the regulation process. The full federal rule text is available from USDA’s website here and is open for public comment Nov. 1 – Dec. 30, 2019.

She says the 2020 crop will yield important information for the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

“We’re going to be able to determine producers’ interests, we’re going to be able to collect data. It’s going to allow producers the opportunity to figure out how hemp grows best in Missouri because it’s been 70 years since we’ve had a successful hemp crop,” Freeman told Missourinet.

She also urges growers to find the processors and establish their costumers before they plant. Markets are opening nationwide from textile-replacing fibers to CBD oil. For example, Levi’s is aggressively exploring hemp as a substitute or supplement to cotton.

“As a regulated crop, it is different than corn and soybeans,” Freeman says, “and we have to phase it back in. Whenever you see new opportunities like this our producers in rural Missouri are going to take advantage of that and whenever our rural communities thrive, our urban communities thrive as well.”

Kyle Hill, KWIX, contributed to this report.

Federal funding helps to expand virtual health care in rural Missouri

November 20, 2019 By Alisa Nelson

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving more than $500,000 to expand virtual health care services in parts of rural Missouri. The USDA is providing the funding through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant program.

Photo courtesy of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Through the grant, Mercy Virtual will install video equipment to provide remote health services in parts of eastern, southern and southwest Missouri. The effort is expected to provide health care to about 210,000 area residents.

The grant will also allow Salem Memorial District Hospital in southern Missouri to put technology connecting rural Missouri schools in Dent, Reynolds, Iron, and Shannon Counties to Phelps Health Hospital in Rolla and SSM Health in St. Louis. The project is said to increase health care access to 2,300 rural Missouri students.

In 2017, President Donald Trump created the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity to identify legislative, regulatory and policy changes that could promote agriculture and prosperity in rural communities. In January 2018, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue presented the Task Force’s findings to Trump. These findings included 31 recommendations to align the federal government with state, local and tribal governments to take advantage of opportunities that exist in rural America. Increasing investments in rural infrastructure is a key recommendation of the task force.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary heading to Kansas City on Friday; Graves praises relocation plan (AUDIO)

November 11, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

A congressman who represents 36 northern Missouri counties is praising USDA’s selection of Kansas City as the site for two major USDA facilities.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, farms in northwest Missouri’s Atchison County in October 2019 (photo courtesy of Congressman Graves’ office)

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, a sixth-generation family farmer, says 90 percent of USDA employees are already outside of Washington. Graves’ sprawling district includes the northern Kansas City suburbs.

“The closer we can get USDA’s core or headquarter staff to agriculture, the better,” Graves says.

USDA will relocate its Economic Research Service (ERS) and its National Institute of Food and Agriculture Policy (NIFA) agencies to Pennsylvania Avenue in Kansas City.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will travel to the location on Friday morning to hold an event with Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Senator Roy Blunt, state Department of Agriculture (MDA) Director Chris Chinn, state Department of Economic Development Director Rob Dixon and others.

Congressman Graves praises the relocation plan, saying it will decentralize USDA.

“When you put too many bureaucrats for an agency inside the Beltway, inside Washington D.C. where they’re not out there interacting with the very people that they are supposed to be serving, then you get into some serious problems,” says Graves.

He says USDA’s decision puts the agencies closer to constituencies.

Graves also predicts the decision will have a “ripple effect” two to three counties deep. He says the average wages for the approximately 550 positions are between $80,000 and $100,000.

“Buying homes, renting apartments, buying gas, buying groceries, buying new televisions, whatever the case may be,” Graves says.

He also emphasizes that the issue has been bipartisan, noting that he’s been working closely with U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) has also praised the plan and the bipartisan regional efforts to land the jobs. Mayor Lucas notes Kansas City is an essential part of the animal health corridor.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, which was recorded on November 1, 2019:

USDA’s Kansas City decision praised by top Missouri Republicans and Democrats

October 31, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation in both parties are praising the decision by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to select Kansas City, Missouri as the site for two major USDA facilities.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City (September 2018 file photo courtesy of Congressman Cleaver’s office)

USDA announced its decision to relocate the facilities to the “greater Kansas City area” in June, but it wasn’t formally announced until Thursday that the office site would be on Pennsylvania Avenue in Kansas City. USDA is relocating its Economic Research Service (ERS) and its National Institute of Food and Agriculture Policy (NIFA) agencies.

USDA chose Kansas City over potential sites in North Carolina and Indiana.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, told Missourinet in June that the decision would bring about 550 jobs to the Kansas City region, with average wages between $80,000 and $100,000.

Pennsylvania Avenue is located in Congressman Cleaver’s district.

“I am pleased to welcome the U.S. Department of Agriculture offices of Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District. Together these institutions and their employees will bolster the agricultural research sector in the Greater Kansas City region to the benefit of the entire nation. A move like this is never easy on employees or their families; however, as the Congressional Representative from Kansas City, I can assure you that Kansas Citians stand ready to make your transition as seamless as possible. We are ecstatic to have you here, and we look forward to your commendable research continuing in the Show-Me State,” Cleaver said in a statement.

Governor Mike Parson and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, both Republicans, also praise USDA’s decision, saying it puts the agencies closer to constituencies.

“I’ve been proud to advocate for the USDA move and finalizing the site selection marks a huge step forward,” Senator Blunt said in a statement. “Bringing these two important ag research agencies closer to the people they serve and the leading research institutions that support their mission is the right move.”

Blunt also praised the USDA decision, during an August interview with Missourinet at the State Fair in Sedalia.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) is also happy, and praises the bipartisan regional efforts to land the jobs. Mayor Lucas notes Kansas City is an essential part of the animal health corridor.

Rural Missouri businessman involved in “Field of Schemes” fraud commits suicide

August 20, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

A prominent northern Missouri businessman who was sentenced to federal prison on Friday for a multi-million dollar grain fraud scheme has committed suicide.

61-year-old Randy Constant of Chillicothe also served at one time on the Chillicothe School Board.

He pleaded guilty in federal court in December in Iowa to one count of wire fraud, for a $142 million grain fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors in Cedar Rapids describe it as the “Field of Schemes” fraud, adding that it’s the largest organic fraud case in United States history.

Constant was sentenced to ten years in federal prison on Friday. Livingston County Coroner Scott Lindley tells Missourinet that he was called to a Chillicothe home Monday evening, and that he found Randy Constant dead inside the garage from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Lindley says it’s been ruled a suicide. Chillicothe Police say the investigation was conducted by police, emergency services and by Coroner Lindley.

In federal court on Friday, Constant admitted the grain fraud scheme involved more than $142 million. He also admitted that he misled customers into thinking they were buying certified organic grain when it was not organic.

Federal prosecutors and representatives from the FBI and USDA held a press conference on Monday morning in Cedar Rapids, and criticized Constant’s fraud.

Federal prosecutors say that from 2010 to 2017, he sold more than 11-million bushels of grain, and that more than 90 percent of it was falsely marketed as organic. The U.S. Attorney’s office notes that amount of grain would fill about 3,600 rail cars.

“We are proud to work alongside our law enforcement partners to bring to justice individuals who have so blatantly betrayed the trust of consumers,” FBI acting Special Agent in Charge Mark Green told reporters Monday in Cedar Rapids.

Three Nebraska farmers who were involved in the scheme were also sentenced to federal prison this week.