Ad Campaign Jeopardizes Poultry Negotiations 01/06/2005
Charging the poultry industry with “delay and deceit,” Attorney General Drew Edmondson canceled next week’s water quality meetings, informing the companies that he was willing to negotiate, but only when they were willing to do so in good faith.
Edmondson has spent the last three years seeking a negotiated water quality agreement with a number of Arkansas poultry companies whose litter is destroying Oklahoma lakes and streams. Until recently, the companies have refused to discuss their responsibility for their environmental degradation.
In a letter to the attorney for poultry integrators Peterson Farms, Cargill, George’s, Tyson Foods, O.K. Foods and Simmons Foods, Edmondson called the industry’s response to the state’s questions and proposals “almost without exception unspecific and nonproductive as to the issues” raised during negotiations held Dec. 9 and 10.
Edmondson also expressed disappointment that the integrators “while expressing a desire to engage in good faith negotiations, are simultaneously encouraging and participating in a media campaign against our efforts to protect the waters of Oklahoma.”
Edmondson said canceling next week’s meeting does not mean he is unwilling to talk.
“If they want to negotiate we are prepared to do so,” Edmondson said. “At the same time, we do not intend to fall victim to stall tactics while the industry and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau are tainting the potential jury pool with advertising and preparing to attack us in the Oklahoma Legislature.”
Edmondson has learned that the integrators and Farm Bureau collaborated in a recent advertising campaign attacking his office.
“The ads were fueled by the poultry companies,” Edmondson said. “We understand the companies participated in the financing and an industry attorney ordered their placement. Compounding the deceit, the companies’ role is not mentioned in the ads nor in Farm Bureau’s news release.”
Lining up against individual farms and the environment is nothing new for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.
“The Farm Bureau sided with the corporate hog farms and against the wheat farmers in western Oklahoma, and now they are siding with the corporate poultry companies,” Edmondson said. “Farm Bureau supports the companies’ position that disposal of poultry litter is the individual growers’ problem, not the companies’ problem.”
In its own news releases, Farm Bureau puts the responsibility for causing the problem on the shoulders of the individual growers. The people Farm Bureau claims to represent are the people it says are responsible for the damage.
“My position is that the industry must bear the costs of removal, disposal and storage of the excess chicken litter that cannot be safely land applied,” Edmondson said. “The industry and Farm Bureau believe those costs fall on the farmer.
“Farm Bureau is carrying dirty water for the industry. It’s clear that Farm Bureau represents the big companies first, the farmers second and the environment somewhere after last.”
Edmondson also wondered how Farm Bureau could be so opposed to clean water that it would threaten legislation to limit the attorney general’s legal authority to protect the state’s natural resources.
“Because of Farm Bureau’s obvious ties to out-of-state corporate farming interests, the people of this state and the members of Oklahoma’s legislature will give little consideration to Farm Bureau’s threats,” Edmondson said. “Clean water is vital to Oklahoma’s future. It’s an economic development issue, it’s an agricultural issue and it’s a quality-of-life issue.”
The recent attack campaign is not the only public relations campaign that caught the attorney general’s attention.
“In August, Tyson launched a ‘Powered by Tyson’ campaign to market their brand,” Edmondson said. “By Tyson’s estimates that campaign will cost the company $75 million in one year. That’s money that could be spent to clean up Oklahoma waters and properly manage poultry waste in the future. It’s clear they won’t do that without a court order.
“The industry has said it would rather spend money on solutions than lawyers,” Edmondson said. “Every time I see a ‘Powered by Tyson’ ad, every time I see the ad Farm Bureau fronted for the industry, it’s clear to me how they would rather spend their money.”
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