Issue 2 PAC Tries to Distract Ohio Voters By Stifling Ads

Issue 2 PAC Tries to Distract Ohio Voters By Stifling Ads

Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Washington, D.C. — “As the campaign over Issue 2, a proposal to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, comes down to the wire, the livestock industry is trying one last trick to squelch the debate.  Recently, Food & Water Watch placed radio ads throughout Ohio to warn Ohio voters that Issue 2 would create a board that is dominated by factory farms.  The Ohioans for Livestock Care PAC pressured the media to pull our message off the air by contacting Clear Channel Communications, Inc., owner of the radio stations currently set to run our ads.  Now, they have filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission alleging that the ads contain “false statements” about how Issue 2 would put the livestock industry in charge of writing its own rules, and that factory farms put the public at risk for diseases like E. coli and swine flu.

“Ohio Against Constitutional Takeover (Ohio ACT), a coalition of organizations opposed to Issue 2, has demonstrated that the creation of the “Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board” is not a true attempt to improve farm animal care and provide Ohio with safe, locally grown food, but merely a power grab by big agribusiness to protect their own interests.   Ohio ACT has exposed the major corporate livestock interest groups who have given large contributions to support Issue 2. On top of the millions of dollars in contributions from out-of-state agribusiness interests, at least 71 factory farms have provided donations to support Issue 2.

“Our opposition has taken to using cheap campaign tactics in order to continue to hide behind a false pretense of representing authentic Ohio farmers.  They have attacked our ad campaign, not because our message is false, but to distract Ohio voters from the real issue at hand. We hope Ohio voters will see their actions as another example of how challenging it can be to take on industrial-sized special interests, and exercise their right to oppose Issue 2 on November 3.”

To hear the ad the opposition does not want you to hear, please visit http://www.ohioact.org/.