Governor Brown Rejects Urgent Demand for Statewide Mega-Dairy Moratorium

Salem, OR - Two months after eastern Oregon residents and members of the Stand Up To Factory Farms coalition met with Governor Kate Brown to ask that she use her executive authority to enact an immediate moratorium on mega-dairies, Governor Brown responded that she will not be taking executive action despite acknowledging the harms of industrial factory farms to Oregon’s communities, air, water and climate. 

Meanwhile, the administration is currently considering the permit for a new 30,000-head dairy operation in the exact same location as the now-shuttered disastrous Lost Valley Farm mega-dairy. 

In response, Stand Up to Factory Farms coalition Organizer Emma Newton issued the following statement: 

“Governor Brown’s failure to protect our public health and environment by suspending the permitting of new and expanding mega-dairies is disappointing, to say the least. Brown claims to be a climate champion, then undermines this legacy by refusing to address the impact of industrial dairies as significant sources of climate change-fueling greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous polluters in our rural communities.

“Despite widespread calls for a mega-dairy moratorium from communities across the state, Governor Brown once again has shown that protecting the profits of polluting, industrial agriculture is more important to her than the health and well-being of Oregon’s environment and communities.”