Drummond supports unwanted court action in poultry cases
By Gov. Kevin Stitt, Sec. Jeff Starling, and Sec. Blayne Arthur
Drive through eastern Oklahoma, and one message is impossible to miss: "Attorney General Gentner Drummond, stop bankrupting farm families."
We see the billboards, we hear the frustration and we are fighting hard for our farming families.
Chicken farmers across our state rely on processors like Simmons, Tyson and Cargill to hire them to raise chickens and bring business to our state. Every part of the bird serves a purpose — from the protein that makes it to our dinner table to the litter that makes fertilizer. The refuse from the birds is a valuable, comparatively safe fertilizer for crops that farmers across the country have used safely for more than 20 years. This system provides affordable protein for the mom at the grocery store, protects our soil and vitally supports rural livelihoods.
But now these farmers are saddled with a federal judge's misguided order, and Attorney General Drummond supports it. This order strips away Oklahoma's control, and it hands poultry litter management to an unelected, unaccountable super regulator. Now an outsider will dictate rules from afar, with no ties to our land or people.
During a recent gathering of more than 300 farmers in Adair County, we heard from families pleading for help to preserve their small businesses and protect their way of life.
Take Megan and Kyle, who have raised poultry for a decade. They produce thousands of chickens per year. Their livelihood relies on Simmons to buy their poultry. Because of their contract, they can employ multiple people in their community. This order, painted as a victory against out-of-state corporations, has a real impact on Oklahoma’s agricultural industry. If this order stands, Adair County and its residents will suffer. Clean water and a vibrant poultry industry isn’t an either/or proposal.
This order, overseen by a court-appointed "special master," is a moving target that makes it impossible for chicken farmers to continue to pursue their livelihoods and forbids them from using the byproducts (litter) of the poultry they are raising. This order is already creating confusion.
If you believe this ends with chicken farmers, you are sorely mistaken. Every sector of the agriculture industry, and Oklahoma’s way of life, is at stake.
Our farmers have followed every rule. They've stewarded the land, kept water clean, and put safe, locally produced, affordable food on tables. If the standards need to change, that is up to the legislature, not a judge. The standards are only disliked by liberal environmental activists and Attorney General Drummond.
We have suggested a practical agreement that protects the environment and protects small Oklahoma farmers, and it is not one dictated by federal overreach and those who don’t understand Oklahoma values.
Farm families deserve home-grown solutions, not to be thrown into bankruptcy.
We join the call: Attorney General Drummond, stop bankrupting farm families.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is in his second and final term. Jeff Starling is Oklahoma's secretary of energy & environment and is a candidate for attorney general. Blayne Arthur is secretary of agriculture.
