In today’s beef buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays speaks with Pat McFerron of CMA Strategies, who warned producers that California’s Proposition 12 has opened the door for anti-agriculture groups to expand their influence. “Proposition 12 has allowed California to dictate pork production and egg production in this country,” he said, noting that it has raised prices for consumers while inspiring similar efforts elsewhere. McFerron cautioned that “the anti–animal agriculture crowd would like to spread the Proposition 12 chaos to other species and other states, including Oklahoma.”
McFerron emphasized how demographic and cultural changes are making agriculture more vulnerable to misinformation. “We’ve continued to become a less rural state every election cycle,” he said. “People get more distance from where they grew up that are in the metro areas, not just space, but time as well.” Because of this, he said, producers must keep working to educate urban voters about “the importance of agriculture and agribusiness, not just to our economy, but also to our values and our core structure of who Oklahomans really are.”
Oklahoma, McFerron explained, has become a prime target for activist campaigns. “You look at Oklahoma as being a deep red state. And so it’s like, hey, if we can make a difference here, we can do that anywhere,” he said. With relatively low costs to run ballot measures or media campaigns, “it puts us at the tip of the spear in these kind of fights.” He warned that national groups “have untold amounts of money,” and that local foundations are joining forces with them to push restrictive animal welfare policies.
A key tactic of these movements, McFerron said, is division within agriculture. “They like to try to pick off one particular species versus another,” he explained. “They’ll say, hey, today we’re going after pork. We’ll tell the beef, poultry, rodeo, fisherman and others that we’re not going to touch you. And then three years later, it’s going to come back again down the pipe.” His message to producers was simple: “If you believe in the conservative values and core Oklahoma beliefs, stay together. They know the phrase divide and conquer, and that’s their goal.”
Ultimately, McFerron urged farmers and ranchers to keep sharing agriculture’s story. “You can never stop telling the story,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job about bragging about the importance of what we do and how these efforts really jeopardize that.” While some hope for federal action to undo Proposition 12, McFerron was skeptical: “Maybe I’m a little jaded or cynical, but I don’t have a lot of faith in Washington, D.C. being able to do a whole lot of things right now.” Instead, he said, “We’ve got to be girded for battle here.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
