Marieta Hauser - Grant County, KS

Farmers and ranchers depend on being able to raise a crop in order to patronize the restaurants, hair salons, local clothing stores, grocery store, and other businesses in their local community. In order for those businesses to be successful, the farmer needs to be successful. We’ve had a period of drought where they’ve struggled with raising a crop. That seems to be easing up a little bit, but now we have issues with the lesser prairie chicken. If we have rules and regulations put on us so that we can’t farm and ranch we’re going to have issues with our Main Street businesses. They are not going to be able to expect the farmers to come in and spend their income if they don’t have the income to spend.

In our small communities businesses on Main Street depend on farmers and ranchers. Farmers and ranchers need dollars to spend in order to support the businesses in our communities. If we don’t stop excessive regulations on farmers and ranchers, more and more often what you are going to see on Main Street in rural America is a "Going Out of Business Sale" sign. If farmers and ranchers don’t have the money to spend, our main street businesses will not be able to survive. It’s that important.