'Right to Farm' state question highlights 'disconnect' between rural and urban Oklahoma, proponent

[TexasTowelie]

'Right to Farm' state question highlights 'disconnect' between rural and urban Oklahoma, proponent says

The increasingly bitter dispute over a proposed constitutional amendment called Right to Farm by its proponents is an indication of a growing “disconnect” between urban and rural Oklahoma, one of the measure’s proponents said Thursday.

“The most difficult obstacle is that the folks outside of agriculture don’t understand the need for it,” Mark Yates, director for public policy field operations at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said during a gathering of State Question 777 supporters in downtown Tulsa.

The Farm Bureau and other agricultural organizations are the primary movers behind SQ 777, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit the Legislature from adopting restrictions on agriculture except in cases of “compelling state interest.”

Its supporters say the amendment is needed to protect farmers and ranchers from excessive environmental and food- and animal-safety regulations. They cite examples in other states, primarily California, of what Yates said are “unreasonable regulations based on emotion, not based on science, not based on reason.”

Read more: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/elections/right-to-farm-state-question-highlights-disconnect-between-rural-and/article_e1b65eb8-e208-5931-8692-9bfbb5b7f97b.html