Latest news with #SenateBill1424
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Oklahoma continues to feel the impact from Big Ag's toxic legacy
The Illinois River is seen from an overlook at Sparrow Hawk Wildlife Management Area in Northeast Oklahoma. (Photo) In the 1990s and 2000s, as industrial poultry production grew in eastern Oklahoma, chicken litter became increasingly used as fertilizer on area crop farms, leading to complaints that key water systems were being polluted by poultry litter. The waste leached into nearby waterways, elevating phosphorus levels that then depleted oxygen, caused algae growth, damaged the fish population and strained the nearly 20 utility systems that rely on the Illinois River Watershed for drinking water, according to news outlet Investigate Midwest. To remediate this now chronic problem, then-Attorney General Drew Edmondson sued in 2005 several large agricultural producers, including Tyson, Cargill, and Simmons Foods, that commonly contract with Oklahoma's poultry farms. A trial was held in 2009, but it took 14 more years before U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled for the state, agreeing that the poultry companies and more specifically, the litter on poultry farms or litter removed and used for fertilizer on nearby crop farms, were to blame for the high contaminate levels. He also criticized Oklahoma lawmakers for not doing enough to protect rivers and lakes from poultry litter pollution. Subsequently, a court-ordered mediation failed. A hearing was held in December to assess whether the environmental conditions in the watershed have changed since the original trial and whether the companies' practices continue to contribute to pollution. At that hearing multiple witnesses testified that water pollution from chicken litter remains a problem. 'To help reverse the phosphorus pollution in the waters of the (Illinois River Watershed), we have to stop making the problem worse. That means we need to stop the land application of poultry waste,' wrote Gregory Scott, a scientist with the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, in testimony presented to Frizzell. A final order from the judge is still pending. Rather than taking steps to reign in the clout of the growing poultry industry and protect the public, Oklahoma lawmakers have chosen to further deregulate and shield it from legal attacks. The state now allows large poultry farms to avoid a more restrictive registration process and construct buildings that house thousands of chickens closer to homes and neighborhoods. In 2023, Oklahoma's Republican-majority Legislature and governor passed House Bill 2053, which would dismiss a protest against a water-use permit for a farm if the protest is 'based solely on the industry or entity applying to use the water.' The legislation's clear intent, to which even the bill's author, Republican state Sen. Brent Howard admitted, was to make it harder for people to oppose large poultry operations. Senate Bill 136, which was introduced in the 2025 session and called for a moratorium on these mega factory farms, was killed in committee. Senate Bill 1424, which was signed into law in 2024, has been the most significant step toward protecting poultry corporations. That legislation now forbids property owners in the Illinois River Watershed, whose lands and surface waterways have been polluted by runoff from poultry litter, from pursuing legal action against contracted poultry growers unless an enforcement action has been taken by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. The law also provides legal immunity to poultry corporations – the same ones targeted in the 2005 suit – from future lawsuits over pollution caused by chicken waste. The measure gives Big Ag and its corporate lobbyists license to despoil our natural resources and wreak havoc on our region's air and waterways. This has the potential to threaten the public health of our communities and the safety of their drinking water. Where water has been contaminated it will require cities and towns that use it to spend more on treatments or seek other water sources. Critics of this legislation have noted that it only benefits out-of-state companies who profit at the expense of Oklahoma's rivers and lakes and does not protect Oklahoma farmers. Nearly all chickens raised in the United States are under production contracts between poultry processors and farmers. Big Ag contracts with farmers can be problematic, potentially leading to unfair terms, reduced farmer autonomy, and increased financial risk for farmers. Over the length of a contract, the buying power of a contract farmer's wages may shrink by more than 20%. Lax regulations against industrial poultry farms are a gift to big agribusiness. Since our state lawmakers seem unwilling to serve as a bulwark for our environment and the economic and public health of our rural communities, we may have to depend on the courts. Judge Frizzell has said he is weighing pollution-control requirements. Since our legislators seem loath to hold Big Ag to account, let's hope the judge comes through. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Influential factory farm industry presents a massive challenge to safety of Oklahomans, animals
Chickens are pictured at an industrial farm. (Photo via Getty Images) Our food system is increasingly dominated by intensive animal agriculture known as factory farms, which are designed to produce as much meat as possible, cheaply and quickly. Nearly all animals farmed in the United States — as many as 99 percent by some estimates — are raised on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, known as CAFOs or factory farms. Each of these farms may hold tens or even hundreds of thousands of animals crammed into wire cages, metal crates, or other extremely restrictive enclosures inside windowless sheds The existence of animal factories presents a significant threat to public health. Animals' feed has traditionally relied on antibiotics, arsenic, hormones and additives. Animals are given vaccines to accelerate animal growth rates and prevent them from getting sick while housed by the thousands in cramped conditions ripe for disease. The overuse of these pharmaceuticals greatly compromises community health. Over 80% of antibiotics used in the U.S. are purchased by the agricultural industry, and their consistent use in livestock selects for antibiotic-resistant superbugs that are infecting humans at an alarming rate. The corporatized approach to our food system has resulted in its domination of all aspects of production and sales, yet operators are often granted protections to escape responsibility for the damages they cause. Despite a heavy environmental impact, industrial animal agriculture is largely exempted from federal and state air and water pollution regulations that apply to other major industries. Last year, the Oklahoma Legislature created a new law, Senate Bill 1424, that forbids property owners in the Illinois River Watershed whose lands and surface waterways have been polluted by runoff from poultry litter from pursuing legal action against contracted poultry growers unless an enforcement action has been taken by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. The law also provides legal immunity to poultry corporations. This calls to mind Oklahoma's Right-to-Farm law, first passed in 1980, that centers on protecting certain agricultural activities on farmland and ranchland from nuisance suits when they impact neighboring property, for example through noise or pollution. Defendants recover costs and fees when nuisance suits are deemed frivolous. This and similar language may have a chilling effect on the filing of nuisance suits in favor of industrial operators. Factory farms carry strict regulations for setbacks from homes and bodies of water, along with a requirement to notify neighbors before construction. But Oklahoma has allowed numerous large poultry farms to avoid registration as CAFOs. As long as the farm doesn't store its litter on site, it can register as a poultry feeding operation. In 2013, the EPA granted Oklahoma authority over factory farm permitting. One year after taking over that registration process, the state reported a 91% decline in the number of factory farms. Perhaps not surprisingly over the past decade, most poultry farms have been registered under the less restrictive poultry feeding operation, while the number of birds licensed to be raised in Oklahoma at any given time doubled. Matthew Alison with the Indian Environmental Law Group represented a group of landowners along one of the state's last 'pristine' category Ozark streams. He sued the state Department of Agriculture after it allowed several 'mega-farms' to be built within the watershed starting in 2018. In July 2024, a Delaware County District Court judge ruled against the state Department of Agriculture and noted that the state's classification of the large poultry houses was in error. In addition, the rearing of farmed animals today, in order to maximize production and minimize costs, inevitably leads to inhumane practices. Oklahoma's animal cruelty statutes do not apply to farm animals as evidenced by two routine factory farming methods — housing creatures in too small enclosures and animal management practices that can include mutilation without pain relief. To date, Oklahoma has not outlawed the use of gestation crates, a 7-foot-by-2-foot cage that is used to house female pigs during pregnancy. It is so restrictive that pigs can't lie down without their limbs intruding into another's cage. If legislators need an example of how to promote more humane farming practices, they could look to California's Proposition 12, which bans the sale of products from farms that inhumanely confine animals. Under Proposition 12, all farm animals must live in areas that allow them to lie down, fully extend their limbs, stand up, and turn around. The United States Supreme Court has taken the side of animals and California's voters and upheld Proposition 12. As lawmakers ponder more industry-friendly policies, let's hope that they remember that human health is tied directly to our food sources. Our food chain starts with how we treat the animals we eat. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
