Last fall, a small community in northeast Kansas made headlines when thousands of residents protested the announcement that a Tyson poultry processing plant would soon be built nearby. Once the residents of Tonganoxie won their “No Tyson in Tongie” campaign, other communities followed suit. Now, state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it easier for communities to vote on whether to introduce new poultry processing facilities or large-scale farms in their communities, reports High Plains Public Radio.
Under the new legislation, residents of a community that would be affected by the introduction of a new poultry processing plant would be able to force a public vote on the issue by collecting petition signatures. The effort to introduce this legislation was made after residents of Tonganoxie and other affected communities were angered that the state promised incentives and negotiated deals with Tyson without public input.
Communities near such processing plants and large-scale farms often argue that the facilities degrade the quality of local water, air, and soil. In Tonganoxie, locals also pushed back on Tyson’s claim that the plants would offer good jobs, pointing out that many of the jobs would have paid below minimum wage.