By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
The “Keep Missouri Farming” Tractor Cruise enters its 10th year Saturday.
The cruise takes off from Mid Buchanan school in Faucett for the Frazier Baptist Church in Agency, then back. The cruise raises money for the Missouri Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.
Former Missouri Farm Bureau board member Vernon Hart of Buchanan County says the foundation works to raise awareness of agriculture among a public more and more detached from the farm.
“People are so many generations away from agriculture they think their food comes from the store, their milk comes from that jug,” Hart tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “They don’t realize what goes into raising an animal.”
Missouri Farm Bureau board member Jason Kurtz of Holt County says the money raised by the cruise goes to the Farm Bureau Foundation which raises awareness about agriculture among a public that knows little about farming.
“As the years go by, and even from when I was in high school, the urban-rural divide is getting wider each and every year,” Kurtz says. “So, I think it is really important for people to understand where their food does come from.”
It costs $35 for an open-cab tractor to be part of the cruise and $50 if the tractor has a cab. Organizers expect at least 60 tractors to participate.
Check in begins at 7:30 Saturday morning at the Mid-Buchanan school at Faucett. The cruise will travel to Frazier Baptist Church in Agency for lunch before returning to Mid-Buchanan.