Grietens Names Chris Chinn Missouri Ag Director

Missouri Gov.-elect Eric Greitens has chosen a northeast Missouri woman to be the next director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Greitens announced on his Facebook page Tuesday that he had chosen 41 year old Chris Chinn to lead the department. She and her husband, Kevin, are fifth-generation farmers who raise hogs, cattle and crops near Clarence in Shelby County.

Greitens called Chinn an "outsider" and a leading advocate for agriculture and family farms. In 2013, she was named by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance as one of their Faces of Farming & Ranching. Greitens says Chinn will help him fight lawyers, activists and the federal government, who he says are using unnecessary regulations, reckless lawsuits and political threats against family farmers. Greitens will be sworn in on Jan. 9.