Who or What Is Responsible for SQ 777 - Right to Harm

   In watching some of the debate surrounding the Right to Harm bill, State Question 777, I noticed several proponents take credit for either writing the bill or punching it through as a state question on the November 8 ballot. For example, the Oklahoma Pork Council (OPC) was one of the first groups to take credit for writing the bill, a couple weeks ago. While I don't think anyone believes the OPC is responsible for actually inventing State Question 777, they are most certainly supporting it, using terms like "hogwash" to describe what those believe who don't support the bill. While enough has been said by both sides of the issue to know what the bill does - one side says its about giving the right to farm to our farmers and ranchers, while the other side says its about giving foreign farm factories constitutional protection against Oklahoma.
   I decided to do a little research in order to determine the true origin of the bill, since several "grass roots" organizations such as the NPC and Farm Bureau are taking credit for it. After a little digging, I found through SourceWatch (a national watchdog group) that "The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is an industry group that represents the pork industry. Its leaders are corporate hog factory executives and industry lobbyists from pork producing and packing corporations like Smithfield (Shuanghui) foods." Shuanghui foods owned by China, but is located in Virginia. "The NPPC, meanwhile, is identified as a supporter of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). From the report ALEC Exposed - "ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve "model" bills." So, what I determined was the nearest relative of the OPC (which claimed credit for SQ 777) is the NPPC - which has corporate factory farms such as Seaboard in the Oklahoma panhandle and Shuanghui in Virginia as contributors. Does anyone begin to smell a "smoking gun" at this point in our investigation? An investigation of "model" bills from ALEC's own website discovered an agricultural bill dated 1996 - and eerily named "Right to Farm". The bill "model" is a "clone" of Oklahoma's State Question 777 - The Right to Farm. Everything, from start to finish, is an exact match for our own bill. The only thing left out of the "model" is the identifying characteristics for each state. All each state's sponsoring lawmaker has to do is "fill in the blanks" and almost magically produces a local bill that will convince local family farmers that this bill "is for them". Again, can anyone smell a corporate "smoking gun". This bill is not for us. It's writers and supporters belong to the "big club", as George Carlin called it - ALEC. "You and I are not in the big club" as Mr. Carlin said in his profanity laced tirade about corporations. One more interesting fact about ALEC is that not only does it have billion dollar corporations as its meat and potatoes, but it has 25% of all state lawmakers for members. While tracing the origin of the bill to 1996, and the writing of it to the NPPC (OPC's older brother) with Seaboard and Shuanghui's help, I discovered that several Oklahoma state legislator sponsors of SQ 777 are also members of ALEC. Lo and behold, another smoking gun. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to understand that the bill was dusted off a year ago, and transported back to Oklahoma along with a generous campaign contribution. Even if no campaign contribution was made to encourage the adoption of this bill, Dark Money groups also belong to ALEC, so contributions are untraceable. Dark money groups such as The American Federation of Children (AFC), the pro-voucher group, which has viciously attacked public school officials in the past (see my last blog about Dark Money). As a matter of fact, I just received in the mail today another card from the OFC ( The AFC's local affiliate) extolling the virtues of a particular District 42 House candidate. If you're a voter in House District 42 (Garvin and McClain County) you may have received the same card.
   In summary, SQ 777 was written in 1996 by corporations, for corporations. It was NOT written by any local farmer nor any grass-roots organization. It was simply written to increase corporate profits for the benefit of share-holders, not you and I. It's documented.