MidwestDemocracy.com:

Republican Senate hopeful John Brunner has the backing of mainstream farming interests like the Missouri Soybean Association and John Deere & Co. But four years ago, Brunner’s charitable foundation donated $10,000 to a group whose views on several big agricultural issues are at odds with some of the leading groups in the industry.

The Brunner Foundation, run by the former St. Louis home health care products executive and his wife, gave the money to the Humane Farming Association, a California-based farm animal safety group, according to federal tax records….I set up the Brunner Foundation to encourage my children to become active in charity. I made it clear that each of them could give to the charity of their choice and that it would remain, solely, each child’s individual decision. In 2007, one of my children chose as a beneficiary the Humane Farming Association. I am extremely proud of my children, but, as with most families, I do not always agree with their choices or decisions.” Read more…

AP:

Missouri Rep. Jason Smith said the farm animal group has sought to overhaul the pork industry and criticized “industrial farming,” and that the charitable donation creates concerns that Brunner has used his “personal wealth to attack our rural way of life.” Smith, R-Salem, added that the Humane Farming Society seems “more radical” than the Humane Society of the United States, which has garnered particular ire from some Missourians after that organization pursued changes to state regulations for the dog breeding industry.

Brunner dismissed the criticism, noting that one of his children made the contribution in 2007, and said families should remain free from political attacks. Read more…

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