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A difficult year for Carroll County poultry farmers became exponentially tougher with the recent shutdown of Cooks Venture and the “depolulation” of more than 1 million chickens, carried out by the Arkansas Poultry and Livestock Commission.
It’s likely too soon to calculate the total financial harm done to local growers, but there’s no way to overstate the damage that has been inflicted.
Carroll County’s farmers are tough, resilient, hardworking people. Still, this is a staggering blow. Some farmers are in grave danger of losing their farms, their livelihoods and even their homes.
And make no mistake: This isn’t just an issue for farmers. Our county’s entire economic foundation is at risk. The effects of this hit to our agriculture industry will be felt by every person who calls Carroll County home.
To add insult to injury, the response from state government can be summed up very succinctly.
“That’s a shame,” the folks in Little Rock appear to be saying.
After state Sen. Bryan King of Green Forest appealed to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to declare an emergency that would allow the state to offer financial assistance to the local farmers who are being left holding the bag through absolutely no fault of their own, state agriculture secretary Wes Ward responded to say that it wasn’t the state’s “proper role” to assume “private debts.”` Later, the governor’s communications director, Alexa Henning, made a snarky social media post about “government bailouts of private businesses on the backs of Arkansas taxpayers.”
We couldn’t help but wonder how Ward and Henning apparently thought it was a worthwhile use of taxpayer money to exterminate more than 1 million chickens and then leave it up to local farmers to either clean up the mess themselves or try to hold Cooks responsible.
This wasn’t about the state’s “proper role.” It wasn’t about “government bailouts,” except maybe the one that Cooks received when the state stepped in to do the company’s dirty work.
This was about the state government assisting a failed company at the expense of local farmers, and by extension every resident of Carroll County.
Something stinks about the entire sad episode, and it’s not just all those dead chickens.
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