Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst made the following statement in response to today’s release of the Show-Me-State Food, Beverage and Forest Product Manufacturing Initiative Study:
“Missouri’s food and agriculture industry is well-positioned for dramatic growth. We raise massive amounts of crops and livestock in Missouri but ship much of it to other states for value-added processing. This new study shows that we could grow our value-added food and forestry industry by over 50 percent in the next eight years by processing locally. The 70,000 new jobs and $25 billion of added economic activity would be transformational for rural Missouri.
“Missouri Farm Bureau will continue to work closely with the University of Missouri and many other partners in this effort. We need to develop concrete steps to make this vision a reality for Missouri’s future.”
The full report is available on the Missouri Agricultural Foundation website.
