Feathers fly at legislative meeting

State Sen. Bryan King of Green Forest traded sharp words with a fellow legislator and state agriculture officials during a committee meeting last week that delved into the shutdown of a Northwest Arkansas poultry integrator and the subsequent euthanization of more than 1 million chickens.

Several Carroll County farmers were among those growers whose flocks were “foamed” by crews from the state Department of Agriculture after the shutdown of Decatur-based Cooks Venture.

At a joint meeting of the Senate and House committees on agriculture, forestry and economic development on Friday, Feb. 9, in Little Rock, King had contentious exchanges with state agriculture secretary Wes Ward and with State Rep. Howard Beaty Jr.

Although King is not a committee member, House committee chair Jack Fortner allowed him to ask questions of Ward and Patrick Fisk, director of the state livestock and poultry commission.

Ward and Fisk said that while the state conducted the euthanizations of 1.3 million birds, Cooks Venture was supposed to be responsible for the cleanup. Growers later told the committee that Cooks did not take responsibility for the cleanup, with one Madison County grower saying she and her husband composted the birds in their houses 11 days after they were killed.

Ward described the episode as an “incredibly unfortunate situation,” while Fisk said he acted in the best interest of the state as a whole in an effort to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Ward told legislators that he learned of Cooks’ financial problems shortly before the company notified its contract growers that it was ceasing operations and could no longer provide feed for the growers’ flocks.

King, a longtime poultry grower who was not affiliated with Cooks, said agriculture officials should have alerted him to the situation. He took issue with Ward’s statement that agriculture officials had “bent over backwards to answer questions from legislators.”

King said the situation was brought to his attention by a grower, not by agriculture officials.

“Again I would say that we have tried to bend over backwards to answer every question that you have had and I apologize that your constituents did not let you know about an issue that they were having,” Ward replied.

“The agenda item basically said an update on bird disposal related to Cooks Ventures that Secretary Ward has provided to us,” Beaty said. “We didn’t come here today to hear an airing of grievances from Senator King to the Department of Agriculture.”

Later, King addressed his fellow legislators from the table and took questions that included sharp words with Beaty. After King described his experiences as a longtime poultry grower, Beaty asked King if the farm he operates with his brother, Jerry, is called KKK Farms. Beaty pronounced the name “Kay Kay Kay,” leading King to correct him by noting that the farm is referred to as Triple K Farms, in reference to the two brothers and their father.

King said the state should have stepped in to assist with cleaning up the dead birds.

“When you’re talking millions of chickens out there, you’re talking about an environmental hazard,” he said. “So this should have been a cleanup situation. This was not their fault, anymore than the Mayflower people that had the oil spill, it was their fault — except the difference is, from the Department of Agriculture standpoint, they would have left the oil there and it would have been your responsibility to clean that up. That’s just wrong.”

In a Dec. 8 letter to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders urging her to declare a state of emergency that would allow the state to provide financial compensation for growers and other businesses affected by the Cooks shutdown and the euthanizations.

“We need to provide full compensation to the growers, feed suppliers, and any entity related to helping this situation,” King wrote in his letter to the governor. “The company is under financial duress, and at this time, the state needs to assume responsibility. It is my hope the state can recoup the cost at a later date.”

Ward responded to King’s request the same day, writing that “because the proper role of government does not include state assumption of private debts, your request has been respectfully declined.”’ Later, Sanders’ communications director, Alexa Henning, addressed King’s request in a social media post that: “The Dept. of Ag and the Secretary worked over Thanksgiving within the appropriate scope of government to assist these farmers,” Henning wrote. “ ‘Conservatives’ shouldn’t ask for government bailouts of private businesses on the backs of Arkansas taxpayers.”

“When I asked for an emergency declaration, they said it was a bailout,” King said at the Feb. 9 hearing.

Instead, King said, the state provided a bailout for Cook’s.

“That’s the real bailout people in this,” he said.

The official reaction to his request was an insult to the state’s agriculture industry, King said.

“For the governor and the secretary of agriculture to say what they did about requesting it, just for the cleanup situation, was a slap in the face,” he said.

“I understand wanting to take care of the growers,” Beaty responded. “I’m sympathetic to their cause. I’d be mad as hell if it was me and my family. And I share some of your anger and frustration. But that frustration and anger and frustration can’t be placed back on the Department of Agriculture that’s just taking care of their duties.”

Beattie said he took issue with King’s letter to the governor.

“The state cannot assume all responsibility for every business that’s in this state that enters into a contractual agreement, if there was a failure on the other party,” Beaty said. “That’s crazy. There’s no way we can do that as a state. … You’re asking for the state to compensate folks that had a contractual arrangement with a business that did not live up to their end of the deal. There’s no way the state could afford that, Senator.

After King responded that he was asking for state assistance with cleanup costs rather than for compensation for the lost contracts, he and Beaty argued about the language of King’s request.

Eventually, Fortner cut off King’s microphone.

“I didn’t want to turn the mic off, but I am the chairman and I am going to stop this,” Fortner said. “You men need to respect each other, and you’re both better than this.”

The committee also heard from growers including Dustin Maybee, a Carroll County farmer who said state crews refused to euthanize the 70,000 birds on his farm because he attempted to video-record their actions.

Ultimately, Maybee said Cooks hauled the birds away. The birds were 114 days old, Maybee said — roughly twice the age when birds are normally processed.

Later, Fisk told the committee that while the state carried out the euthanizations, it did not have the resources to handle the cleanup. He said that responsibility was placed on Cooks and acknowledged that the company did not carry out that obligation correctly.

State Sen. Matt Stone noted Fisk’s explanation that the state didn’t have the resources for the cleanup.

“Would the poultry farmer, do they have the resources to compost those birds?” Stone asked.

“That I’m not clear on,” Fisk replied.

“If you didn’t have the funding, why would the poultry grower themselves have the funding?” Stone asked.

“Fair enough,” Fisk answered.

Near the end of the meeting, Beaty apologized to King for his pronunciaton of the name of King’s farm.