Dear John,

One of our major priorities for the 2023 legislative session, the Factory Farm Moratorium bill (SB 85-1), is at risk of being severely weakened. We support the current bill because it hits the pause button on expanding or adding any new mega dairies and other huge factory farm operations in the state until we can adequately address the water, air, climate, animal welfare, and worker issues that plague the largest of the large factory farm operations. 

We need you to take action today to make sure the bill stays strong!

This Wednesday at 8:00 AM the Senate Committee on Natural Resources is considering an industry-backed amendment that would cut major protections from the bill. This amendment would limit the bill to just chicken factory farms, excluding any other factory farm operations like mega dairies, and it would reduce the time of the moratorium to just two years. We all know that a two year moratorium doesn’t give the state nearly enough time to adequately regulate the factory farm industry.

We can’t let Oregon’s lawmakers cave to the pressure from industry by severely weakening this bill. Will you ask your state senator to stand strong and support the original bill, SB 85 (with -1 amendment), and reject the industry-proposed -2 amendment that removes mega dairies from the bill?

One of the largest dairies in the country is located in Eastern Oregon near the Columbia River in Morrow County. Some 70,000 head of dairy cattle are all housed in a small amount of land generating massive manure lagoons, sucking as much water out of the ground as a small Oregon city, and creating unhealthy air pollution that also contributes to climate change. Morrow County is struggling with low groundwater levels, and with dangerous levels of nitrates in the groundwater that people rely on for their drinking water. 

Not only have the mega-dairies in our state wreaked havoc on communities’ water quality and quantity, and air quality, they have also put dozens of family and midsized farmers out of business. We cannot allow lawmakers to remove mega-dairies from this crucial piece of legislation. 

There is currently a vacant site ripe for a mega-dairy in the region where existing mega-dairies already operate and this bill is crucial to ensuring that site isn’t developed into an inadequately regulated factory farm––another key reason to not exclude mega dairies from this bill.

We also know that Oregon’s communities are at risk of Foster Farms' intention to expand in a big way into Oregon’s Willamette Valley––making it crucial that we hit the pause button on ALL factory farms in the state of Oregon. So please join us in urging your senator to keep the Factory Farm Bill strong by rejecting the industry-backed -2 amendments.

Thank you for all that you do!

Julia DeGraw

Coalition Director, OLCV