Last week, Oklahoma’s controversial “Right to Farm” bill was defeated by voters. The state’s farmers and ranchers are now wondering what the short- and long-term effects of the bill’s rejection will be.
As AgWeb reports,the short answer is: nothing. That’s because the bill wasn’t meant to cause immediate changes, but was rather an attempt to obviate future legal challenges from animal-rights groups and other special interest organizations. Derrell Peel is a professor of agribusiness at Oklahoma State University.
He said the bill was an attempt to be proactive to possible issues that the industry sees coming down the road. In that respect, “It was a little bit of a gamble and the gamble didn’t pay off.” The bill received strong support from the panhandle area and the western portion of the state. But it was ultimately defeated by the state’s eastern portion, as well as Oklahoma’s urban centers.