HB0505 Whiteside, Dale et al

P R E F I L E D

HB 505 -- Agriculture

This bill requires the Department of Natural Resources to promulgate rules regulating the safe cessation of wet-handling animal waste facilities. Such rules shall require concentrated animal feeding operations, with wet-handling animal waste facilities that have a design capacity of equal to or greater than 17,500 hogs per site to provide a financial assurance instrument to guarantee safe cessation of the animal waste lagoon.

The bill has additional provisions relating to animal production including:

(1) Corporations and cooperatives engaged in farming are not eligible for any state tax credits or deductions, state grants, loans, or other financial or economic assistance, unless independent agricultural entities, including family farm corporations, are eligible for the same.

(2) Corporations engaged in farming which offer a written contract to farmers, but retain ownership of the commodity, are to annually file with the Department of Agriculture a report including the number of agriculture production contracts entered into in the state and a sample of such contracts.

(3) Each contract offered by a corporation to a farmer is to be written in plain, nontechnical, unambiguous terms.

(4)The Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Extension Division of the University of Missouri, is to provide information and technical assistance which will include education about terms of contracts, liability considerations, financial, and other aspects of agricultural contracts.

(5) Prior to purchase of real estate in any county by any concentrated animal feeding operation, such operation is to provide to the county Recorder of Deeds and the largest public library in the county, the number of hogs in the anticipated facility, a copy of the waste handling plans and general layout, and the expected duration of the operation at the size reported.

(6) No agricultural operation with more than 17,500 hogs at any one site is to commence operation within one-half mile of any residential building or structure after August 28, 1995.