Cooney talks about his Growing Montana Plan at campaign event

Montana Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney held a campaign event Tuesday afternoon at Gibson Park in Great Falls, livestreamed over Facebook, to talk about his Growing Montana Plan, which he said is aimed at helping rural agriculture producers around the state amid uncertain economic times.

Cooney is facing Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., Libertarian candidate Lyman Bishop and Robert Barb, who is running as a Green Party candidate, in the gubernatorial race in the 2020 general election.

Cooney said the plan’s goal is to invest in Montana agriculture and facilitate the creation of good-paying jobs in rural parts of the state.

Cooney said, as part of this plan, he would support increasing the funding percentage for the Growth Through Agriculture Program using funds from the Coal Severance Tax Fund, and would reinstate the Country of Origin Labeling law for beef and pork producers, which he said would help American ranchers compete with international producers.

Cooney announced his support for efforts by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to get the Federal Trade Commission to address the fact that farmers need to be able to repair their own equipment instead of being required to get it repaired at dealer-authorized repair shops which are often far more expensive.

“Farmers and ranchers should have the right to repair their own equipment instead of being forced to rely on overpriced dealer-authorized repair shop,” he said.

Cooney also said he supports hemp as a legitimate crop and would work with the federal government to open markets to it.

“I’ll make sure bank, regulators and other service providers treat hemp producers like the legal businesses that they are,” he said.

As part of the plan, Cooney said, he would also support measures that would facilitate the creation of state certified local and regional meat processing facilities in Montana.

Cooney said he was raised in Butte, but he comes from a line of rural Montanans, which gave him and appreciation for the challenges and difficulties involved in agriculture production.

“That doesn’t make me a farmer or a rancher, I am not,” he said. “But any Montanan can tell you how important a strong ag economy, and rural economy is for the future of our state… It’s the most important sector of our economy and remains out biggest industry, but it’s more than that. Farming and ranching it’s a way of life.”

He said high-quality food doesn’t magically appear in supermarkets, it’s produced by the labor of Montana’s agriculture producers, whose challenges have gone unaddressed for too long.

He decried President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war and called it reckless, and something that will have, and has had, far-reaching effects on Montana’s agriculture sector.

“Markets have disappeared, potentially forever, farm bankruptcies have skyrocketed, and commodity prices have tanked,” he said, “And it’s not just ranchers and farmers, when the agricultural economy suffers Montana’s economy suffers.”

He said the downturns caused by the trade war can have far reaching consequences causing people, especially the young, who might choose to leave the state for good when it feels like they can’t make it here.

Tester, who spoke before Cooney, said the trade war can be especially hard on smaller communities, affecting the prices of things like cattle guards and grain bins, which have inflated since the conflict began.

He also criticized Gianforte for his support of the trade war and for letting Montanans be swept up the conflict.

“He didn’t raise a finger to keep Montana’s farmers and ranchers from becoming pawns in the president’s reckless trade war,” he said.

Gianforte’s campaign took issue with Tester’s comments.

“Wishing Sen. Tester a full recovery from amnesia, because Greg Gianforte has been on the front lines, working with trade negotiators, administration officials, and the president himself to ensure new trade deals work for Montana ag producers,” Gianforte campaign manager Jake Eaton said this morning. “Montana farmers and ranchers have worked with Greg Gianforte for years, and they know he’ll always be on their side as governor.”

Tester also emphasized Tuesday the importance of agriculture to Montana’s economy, and said it is vital to Montana.

“Agriculture is the backbone of this state, and making sure farmers and ranchers get a fair shake is of upmost importance,” he said, “…. This state cannot survive without agriculture, it needs a strong agriculture sector to survive.”

He said Cooney has proven himself to be a friend to agriculture producers and that trend would continue into his governorship if elected.

“This election comes at precarious time for us in production agriculture, and there is nobody, I mean nobody that will do a better job protecting agriculture than my friend Mike Cooney,” he said.

Tester said having someone like Cooney as governor is especially important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said has made life more difficult for producers who were already facing serious difficulties.

“Ag producers need certainty to be able to thrive and survive, and right now they have anything but certainty,” he said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has put a hurt on family farms and ranches, and quite frankly it wasn’t exactly cherries before COVID came in.”

Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer of Geyser said he has known both of them for many years.

“I’m really honored to introduce Jon and Mike,” he said, “Jon Tester, you guys know him as your U.S. senator, but I knew him as my butcher before he was a senator.”

He also said his daughter and Cooney’s son were best friends in high school and their families spent a lot of time together as a result.

Schweitzer said he worked with them in the 2005 Legislature to get the Country of Origin Labeling bill passed, which he said Tester took to the to the USDA and helped make them enforce it in 2009.

He said he’s also been speaking with Cooney about his Growing Montana Plan, and said he’s impressed with how it turned out so far.

Cooney said his campaign has brought him to all corners of the state to speak with people about what they want for Montana and he wants to continue talking to people like that if he’s elected governor.

“Public service is a two-way street. We serve at the pleasure of the public, not the other way around,” he said.

Cooney said he wants to continue to hear the concerns of people as he works to address the many issues that are being faced by agriculture producers throughout the state.

“We have our work cut out for us, and I’m not always going to have the answers,” he said, “but what I’ll tell you is that I’ll always show up to listen to learn and to partner with rural Montanans to keep growing Montana.”