Missouri farmers, wanna sell your flooded land to the Army Corps of Engineers?

All too often, the source of a public relations disaster is nothing more than poor timing and a dash of forgetfulness. This week, the Army Corps of Engineers is learning that lesson. Every year, the corps sends out letters to landowners in flood-prone areas. But this year, those letters are rubbing farmers the wrong way.

The idea in the letters, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, is to allow land near rivers to return to nature and “to reduce future floods by

reducing floodplain development.” Seems innocent enough. Unless your farm is currently under several feet of water. Then, farmers have complained, the corps’ letters are just plain rude. And now Sen. Claire McCaskill is doing what she does best: calling out the guilty party.