{"id":26259,"date":"2016-03-10T10:15:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T16:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=26259"},"modified":"2016-03-10T10:15:43","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T16:15:43","slug":"oklahoma-right-to-farm-debate-heats-up-as-water-group-sues-to-stop-sq-777","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/03\/10\/oklahoma-right-to-farm-debate-heats-up-as-water-group-sues-to-stop-sq-777\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Right-to-Farm Debate Heats Up As Water Group Sues to Stop SQ 777"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26262\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26262\" alt=\"Save the Illinois River President Denise Deason-Toyne at No Head Hollow public access point on the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Okla.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/PHOTO-3-10-Pic1.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/PHOTO-3-10-Pic1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/PHOTO-3-10-Pic1-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/PHOTO-3-10-Pic1-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/PHOTO-3-10-Pic1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Save the Illinois River President Denise Deason-Toyne at No Head Hollow public access point on the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oklahoma could become a right-to-farm state if voters approve <a title=\"BallotpediaLink\" href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Oklahoma_Right_to_Farm,_State_Question_777_(2016)\" target=\"_blank\">State Question 777<\/a> this November. But opponents are gearing up for a legal fight to keep the issue off the ballot.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/251188436&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Chicken waste worries<\/h3><p>Denise Deason-Toyne looks out over the winding Illinois River from No Head Hollow, a river access point near Tahlequah.<\/p><p>\u201cLet\u2019s talk chicken litter,\u201d she says.<\/p><p>Deason-Toyne is the president of the water advocacy group Save the Illinois River. She\u2019s talking about chicken litter because a decade ago, her group supported the <a title=\"InsuranceJournalLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2005\/06\/14\/55947.htm\" target=\"_blank\">state\u2019s lawsuit against poultry companies<\/a> that were polluting the river with chicken waste.<\/p><p>\u201cMaybe they did not intend those consequences, but certainly once they learned that overuse of poultry litter as fertilizer was causing a phosphorous problem in the river, they would\u2019ve stopped if they were that concerned,\u201d Deason-Toyne says. \u201cBut no, we had to challenge that.\u201d<\/p><p>Right-to-farm would amend the state constitution to prevent the legislature from passing bills that impede the farming and ranching process, without a compelling interest. For Deason-Toyne, that\u2019s a problem. She says right-to-farm would make it easier for farmers to pollute. So her group is suing.<\/p><p>\u201cWe want to keep this off the ballot, and we want the court to say it is unconstitutional,\u201d she says.<\/p><p>She says state question 777 would leave it to the courts to decide what\u2019s in the state\u2019s compelling interest, and it\u2019s too vague.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s confusing in that people already have the right to farm,&#8221; Deason-Toyne says.\u00a0&#8220;So what kind of a right is this actually giving?\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Right-to-farm fight taking shape<\/h3><p><a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/02\/26\/oklahoma-right-to-farm-push-about-more-than-agricultural-practices\/\" target=\"_blank\">As StateImpact has reported<\/a>, right-to-farm is basically a fight between the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and the Humane Society of the U.S., which pushes for stricter animal welfare laws that worry many larger farms.<\/p><p>Right-to-farm has broad support among agricultural interest, but local opposition is lining up. There\u2019s Save the Illinois River, the Oklahoma Stewardship Council headed by former Attorney General Drew Edmondson, Sierra Club, and the Oklahoma Municipal League. And now, the Cherokee Nation has come out against right-to-farm.<\/p><p>\u201cThe Cherokee Nation has as long a history of agriculture as anyone on this continent, and agriculture is extremely important,\u201d Cherokee Nation Secretary of Natural Resources Sara Hill says. \u201cBut to really support a right-to-farm you need to have the legislature being able to take action when it\u2019s necessary, and this language really prevents that from happening.\u201d<\/p><p>John Collision with the Oklahoma Farm Bureau says right-to-farm doesn\u2019t have anything to do with water, and the recent lawsuit and growing resistance is badly misguided.<\/p><p>\u201cWere there wrongs in the past? Sure. Are there laws on the book today that we have to follow? Absolutely. Does this state question do anything to take those laws off the book? Absolutely not,\u201d Collison says.<\/p><p>He\u2019s offended by the suggestion that farmers would use their constitutional right-to-farm to pollute water.<\/p><p>\u201cWe live here. We work here. Our kids grow up here,\u201d Collison says. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to pollute the water. That\u2019s just the most ridiculous thing of all times. If you want to kill a bill come out with arguments that are legitimate. Don\u2019t come out with scare tactics, say we\u2019re going to pollute the water. That\u2019s just nonsense.\u201d<\/p><p>He\u2019s confident the lawsuit will fail.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s always interesting when groups come out and try to sue you in court before the bill\u2019s even gone to the people,\u201d Collison says.<\/p>\n<h3>A third way?<\/h3><p>Republican State Representative Terry O\u2019Donnell says agriculture isn\u2019t a big interest in his Tulsa area district, but water quality is. He is neither in favor of nor against right-to-farm, but he\u2019s <a title=\"OklegislatureLink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oklegislature.gov\/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HB2446&Session=1600\" target=\"_blank\">pushing a bill <\/a>that would define water quality as being in the state\u2019s compelling interest.<\/p><p>\u201cIf that\u2019s what the people of the state of Oklahoma want then I\u2019m for that,\u201d O\u2019Donnell says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t feel like we need to sacrifice our water quality so that you could have a hog farm or some sort of industrial agricultural activity shielded from protecting a watershed in various parts of the state.\u201d<\/p><p>O\u2019Donnell\u2019s bill is waiting for a vote of the full state house. Back at No Head Hollow on the Illinois River, Denise Deason-Toyne says the legislation doesn\u2019t appease her.<\/p><p>\u201cIn my opinion it\u2019s a waste of their legislative time to be trying to propose this and making water rights a compelling state interest,\u201d she says. \u201cI mean, it should be a compelling state interest. That should be a given. But making it legislatively so is not going to trump a constitutional protection.\u201d<\/p><p>In her words, it\u2019s all bologna, or rather, chicken litter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma could become a right-to-farm state if voters approve State Question 777 this November. But opponents are gearing up for a legal fight to keep the issue off the ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26259"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26276,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26259\/revisions\/26276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}