Column by State Rep. Lundy Kiger
There is no doubt the poultry industry is one of the largest and most important industries in our county, producing thousands of hourly jobs, in addition to allowing many rural residents the ability to live and work on the farm while raising their families. But then again, rural Oklahoma is the only part of the state that any industry that grows chickens could really operate in without serious push back.
The poultry industry is also different from many other industries that may build a large facility or facilities in just one general location. One significant difference is the poultry industry also involves hundreds of other people who may live many miles from the processing plant, but close to neighbors with poultry houses needed to grow their birds that are scattered all over a county, region and multiple states. For the two to co-exist properly, it requires a balance of corporate and private individuals working together with everyone under contract, while also including neighbors who may be affected.
The poultry industry needs individuals who are located in different parts of a county or region and willing to participate as the corporation plans for the overall success of everyone while meeting their daily contract needs. This participation also involves people under contract who have acquired financing, have land, have access to land, easements for water, electric and natural gas, and finally the permitting and construction of large and expensive poultry houses that make up the farm.
While each of these houses are designed to grow thousands of chickens, it also requires much thought and engineering to also try and hide the poultry houses from nearby property owners. To do this, natural vegetation or trees are sometimes used as barriers.
Another important factor is designing and controlling the directions of exhaust from internal fans that will push air through and out of each house. The importance of such planning to be included is the fact these new poultry houses will now share the same area and environment with other people, families and their homes, as well as the properties of other people not consulted who will now become neighbors.
We appreciate poultry and all industries that locate and call SE Oklahoma home. But as the corporate poultry industry or any industry resides in rural Oklahoma to conduct business, all industry has an obligation of cooperation and integrity while planning, building and operating around people who have made their homes in LeFlore County for generations, well before the corporate poultry industry ever signed a contract with a farmer.
But for many on the outside looking in who are involuntarily and directly affected by this growth, it’s easy to think that the hard decisions for growth for many corporations are losing the battle in finding the right balance with the public when profits are the bottom line. At the same time, the bottom line seems to be a large hurdle for corporations in making the right decisions. It’s easy for a corporation to take the position that following all of the rules gives their new growers the right to make decisions related to their personal property. In the world that we live in, I have to say both are probably right. But when growth impedes too much or too large on others, something has to give or it turns into a big fight that should try and be avoided at all costs.
With the specific situation in the Cameron area, there has to be a fair balance related to not just locating a farm on land that meets state and federal regulations, but a balance of considerations must also be applied when it comes to planning, developing grower contracts, construction, trucking, feed, water, electric, natural gas, composting, litter, odor, litter management, air management, water runoff, and how all of this affects everyone who calls themselves neighbors!
The distances of these four farms near Cameron – with 12 houses constructed and 44 more houses planned for construction – will all meet the state’s required set back rules. But when a company approves a total of 56 large poultry houses for four farms with each individual house being approximately 55 feet wide by 550 feet long, with some of the farms just a mile or so from each other and located close to a community or housing additions, it’s just too many houses, creating a large “congestion” of poultry houses that will have many negative effects on a lot of people and their personal property. And when this happens, the industry will see serious push back that is now taking place in Cameron and from me.
Another legitimate concern for many who are already growing chickens is the fear that these new larger farms (eight built at a time) will eventually drive many of them over time out of business. The majority of our small farm families have been the backbone of the poultry industry for years, and these people have everything they own tied up in personal loans. If this does occur, it would put many local small farm families into bankruptcy and possibly losing not only their poultry houses but their homes, vehicles, farm equipment land and everything that was put up for collateral and required to qualify for the poultry farm loan.
So, LeFlore County and the poultry industry is at an important crossroads of where we’re going in this region in the future. Small family farms used to be two to four smaller houses, and each of us understands that business and industry changes, but in this case change would proceed much better if we can all work together in what our area will look like in the future and how our small farm families are treated.
I’m calling on all LeFlore County people and the poultry corporation to join me in calling for cooperation as we co-exist and thrive together in growing this important industry and great jobs. We need better planning by the corporation when they locate these new larger farms, and we also need cooperation when the small family farmers are pushed to make large financial improvements to meet new standards or face the reality of having their contract terminated and facing bankruptcy.
The pressure on publicly traded companies to make larger profits makes it more difficult, but not impossible, in achieving a unique balance that I’m calling for. I support both the industry, plant workers, growers and the neighbors. And as long as there is cooperation among all parties, Leflore County can become an example for the industry in how each of us can exist and grow together!
I ask anyone in the industry or affected to join us in person or online this Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Cameron Civic Center located on the campus of Cameron Schools.
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