The following statement was issued by Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Stacy Simunek following the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma’s judgment in the State of Oklahoma v. Tyson Foods, Inc., lawsuit, which outlined penalties for poultry companies and a 30-year remediation plan for the Illinois River watershed.
Oklahoma Farm Bureau members are disheartened by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma’s judgment against poultry companies in the decades-long State of Oklahoma v. Tyson Foods, Inc., lawsuit.
Family poultry producers will be the first to feel the negative impacts of this decision. Tyson Foods has already announced their intentions to allow contracts with local poultry producers to expire, leaving farm families on the hook to pay for their own poultry facilities and operations with no source of income. As a result, millions of dollars of economic activity are at risk of leaving eastern Oklahoma’s rural communities.
Poultry producers and family farmers and ranchers across eastern Oklahoma have spent the last two decades since the initial lawsuit was filed improving their production practices to reduce the phosphorous levels in the Illinois River watershed. Water quality improvements have already been seen in the watershed. These improvements have been earned by the agriculture community taking a proactive role in managing poultry litter.
However, the state must recognize that agriculture is just one of many contributors to phosphorous in the watershed. Municipalities, other industries and local residents must all step up their efforts to care for our shared natural resources.
The court’s 30-year remediation plan essentially establishes limitless governmental oversight with a court-ordered master who will be granted judicial immunity. This, combined with a revolving fund that must continually be recharged by the poultry companies for more than a generation, poses serious concerns about regulatory overreach.
This decision not only ignores decades’ worth of effort that agriculture has invested into the watershed to improve environmental quality, but it also establishes an entire regulatory system outside of state or federal law. As a result, Oklahomans have every right to be concerned about the future of agriculture and our rural communities.
We know that local farmers and ranchers are committed to environmental stewardship across decades and generations, and we call upon the state of Oklahoma to create a workable solution that benefits all Oklahomans and does not unjustly penalize our state’s hard-working farm and ranch families.
