Dan Kleinsorge’s contempt for the Humane Society of the United States is hard to miss.
The tone of his voice becomes edgier and more intense when speaking about the animal welfare organization, as if it is a terrorist group or public enemy No. 1.
Kleinsorge, executive director of Missouri Farmers Care, a coalition of agricultural groups, has been in the middle of a nasty fight with the HSUS over a Missouri constitutional amendment known as the Right to Farm.
Missourians approved the Right to Farm ballot initiative Aug. 5 by a narrow margin of 2,490 votes, with nearly a million votes cast.
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Kleinsorge, part of the team leading the campaign for Right to Farm, said the amendment will protect Missouri farmers from outside interests who want to meddle in the state’s agricultural policies.
“What it means is we have a layer of protection that we didn’t have before,” he said.
“All we really wanted was a broad right in our state constitution, so when these groups like HSUS come in with a ballot initiative … (we) would have some grounds to go to our state Supreme Court and challenge that.”
Right to Farm isn’t a done deal because groups opposed to the amendment asked for a recount, which Missouri’s secretary of state granted in late August.
Kleinsorge isn’t worried.
“We have optical scanner, machine-counted voting everywhere in the state, so it’s kind of hard to miss a count by that much. We’re very confident that recount won’t change anything.”
Kleinsorge said Missouri farm and ranch organizations brought forward the Right to Farm constitutional amendment because they were tired of battling with the HSUS over agricultural practices and regulations.
“What we noticed … is that HSUS really liked to run these ballot initiatives in agricultural states that have a ballot initiative,” he said.
“They’ve been doing this over and over and becoming more and more bold about it.”
The amendment says that the “right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state, subject to duly authorized powers.”
The HSUS and other critics said the amendment would benefit corporate interests.
“By forbidding any state rules to regulate agriculture, (it) allows big agribusiness to write its own rules with no oversight,” the HSUS said in a statement.
The HSUS also argued the amendment protects puppy mills in Missouri because it could prevent regulation of dog breeders.
The vote was a battle between urban and rural Missouri: city residents sided with the HSUS, while most rural residents voted for the amendment.
“We did poorly in St. Louis … and in Springfield, which is kind of a university town,” Kleinsorge said.
Unless the recount changes the outcome, Missouri will become the second state to implement a Right to Farm constitutional amendment.
North Dakota passed a similar ballot initiative in 2012 and Indiana will vote on a Right to Farm amendment in November.
Kleinsorge said the Right to Farm movement is gaining traction because farmers are weary of the HSUS and its never-ending crusade against animal agriculture.
“The HSUS is that group that’s come after us,” he said.
“It’s kind of a preventive measure…. I think any agricultural state that also has ballot initiatives needs to look at this.”
Results of the recount are expected by the middle of September.
