Rally Held Against "Right To Farm" State Question

Opponents of state question 777, named Right to Farm, rallied at the Tower Hotel on Tuesday. The event brought together dozens of opponents with differing reasons for their opposition.

“I do not want us to become a state that's America's dumping ground. I don't want us to be a state that's a killing field,” Kirkpatrick bank chairman Christian Keesee said before the rally.

According to a release about the rally, 14 different people were scheduled to speak. Their affiliations range from small farmers to environmentalists, from religious leaders to former governors.

Keesee was the man behind Tuesday's rally. For him, SQ777 is one of the most important decisions voters will face this November.

“Barry Switzer said it right when he said, whenever a group of people or an organization or a corporation is asking the public to pass a big a** piece of legislation that will keep them from being regulated,” Keesee said quoting the legendary football coach. “It's time for people to wake up.”

State Question 777 would amend the state's constitution to say any new farming regulation must pass the same strict legal test we use for freedom of speech and religion before it can be put in place.

Opponents like Keesee say it takes families out of farming...benefiting the largest agricultural companies the most.

Something the Farm Bureau president Tom Buchanan, who supports Right to Farm, rejects.

 “Why in the world would we do something that creates additional competition for us, that would allow--open the door, as my opponents say, to corporate farming? That's a falsehood. This does not allow corporate farming to be empowered in any way, in any way in Oklahoma, none at all,” Buchanan said.

Supporters of 777 say they just want the state out of their daily lives...saying regulation is squeezing family farmers to their breaking points. But KeeSee says otherwise and hoped events like his rally can change votes.