New report outlines plan to end extreme confinement of pregnant sow pigs in Oklahoma

For most of the approximately 480,000 pregnant sow pigs that reside in Oklahoma each year, life is monotonous, painful, and horrifying. These intelligent, social creatures spend the bulk of their short lives confined to small metal cages called gestation crates. The crates—measuring 6.6 feet by two feet—are only slightly larger than the pregnant sows, rendering them immobile, without the ability to turn around, lay down, or extend their limbs. Inside these crates, the pregnant sows are artificially inseminated and forced to produce litter after litter of piglets until, their usefulness for breeding spent, they are slaughtered after three or four years.

A new report published by the Kirkpatrick Foundation, The Way Forward: A Report on the Extreme Confinement of Pregnant Pigs in Oklahoma, chronicles the rise of factory pig farming in the state and how the industry morphed from hundreds of family-owned farms dotting the landscape to a few, vertically integrated, multinational corporations following the Oklahoma Legislature’s vote in 1991 to exempt corporate swine and poultry operations from the state’s historic anti-corporate farming statute.‍

The Way Forward documents the toll that factory farming has taken on Oklahoma, including:

 ·  The number of Oklahoma hired-farm workers fell 72 percent between 1990 and 2000;

·  The state led the nation in farmer bankruptcies in 2019;

·  Foreign ownership of Oklahoma farmland rose from 64,402 acres in 2004 to 1.8 million acres in 2022;

·  Much of Oklahoma-produced pork is exported to Japan, China, and South Korea; and,

·  Unmetered groundwater usage in northwest Oklahoma has risen dramatically as farmers grow corn and sorghum to feed the state’s 2.18 million hogs, leading to the diminished viability of the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Way Forward offers a solution. By transitioning from extreme confinement to group housing, pregnant sow pigs can live more humane lives while helping the Oklahoma hog industry evolve in a dramatically changing marketplace. New laws in California and Massachusetts ban the sale of pork produced using extreme confinement, and eleven U.S. states have banned or restricted extreme confinement. Dozens of major food companies nationwide (McDonald’s, Burger King, Kroger, Target, and more) have enacted policies to source pork only from group sow housing operations. Meanwhile, a new generation of sustainable farmers are providing an increasingly demanded array of humanely raised meat and egg products.

Retrofitting sow barns to remove gestation cratesand install group housing systems will create economic development in rural Oklahoma. Kirkpatrick Policy Group (KPG) supported bills filed during the 59^th Oklahoma Legislature that would have provided grants to pig farmers to defray the cost of transitioning away from extreme confinement. The bills were never heard in either the House or Senate agriculture committees, illustrating the grip that animal agriculture lobbyists hold on state-level policymaking. KPG doesn’t advocate for veganism or a meatless society, only that food animals be treated well before they serve their ultimate purpose.

According to polling, 91 percent of Oklahomans support policies that require sufficient space for farm animals to “stand up, turn around, and stretch their limbs in any cage, crate, or pen.” All this happens while the Legislature and the governor pass controversial bills shielding the massive animal agriculture corporations from lawsuits and unwinding regulations designed to protect landowners from pollution caused by factory farms.

Oklahomans, and the animals who live here, deserve better. They deserve a way forward from the devastating effects of factory farming and extreme confinement. Kirkpatrick Policy Group urges action from lawmakers, stakeholders, the media, and the public. Before you buy, think about where your meat and eggs are raised. Before you draft your next bill, think about the effect your legislation will have on average Oklahomans. Before you vote, think about which elected officials will fall in line with the animal agriculture lobbyists. Before you write your next story, think about the pregnant sow pigs, trapped in their cages, bearing piglets they will never nurture, waiting to die.

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