Jim Whitt, Contributing Editor

Playing Chicken with Chicken Little

If there was ever a children’s story that has become a metaphor for the world we live in today it is the tale of Chicken Little. If you remember, Chicken Little was bopped on the head by a falling acorn, which led him to conclude that the sky was falling. Armed with this misperception, Chicken Little proceeds to enlist Henny Penny, Cocky Locky and Goosey Loosey and others in her cause to inform the king of this undeniable, impending tragedy. The story takes an interesting turn when Foxy Loxy gets involved. Foxy Loxy pretends to be a true believer in the “sky is falling” theory, but in reality is just looking for his next meal, and Chicken Little and friends fit his menu nicely. After all, if they actually believe the sky is falling, he figures they’ll fall for anything.

Unfortunately, there are real-life Chicken Littles claiming the sky is falling. Once upon a time these heretics were laughed at and denounced as delusional. But in this age of unreason, some are taken seriously; one was nearly elected to the country’s highest office. Failing to win the presidency through democratic means, Al Gore decided to appoint himself the world’s foremost authority on climate change. He made a movie called An Inconvenient Truth that has a familiar story line: I’ve been hit on the head by something I don’t understand and can’t explain. Therefore we must inform the king (that guy from Texas who beat him) that the sky will fall unless we do something about global warming (which, of course, is caused by that guy from Texas).

Propaganda movies are in vogue this year and you won’t want to miss Fast Food Nation. The film’s Web site describes it as, “An ensemble piece examining the health risks involved in the fast food industry and its environmental and social consequences as well.” One of the movie’s taglines is “The Truth is Hard to Swallow.” There’s not a lot of truth to chew on in this film, but watching it may make you gag.

The perpetuators of these mythical productions believe they are more enlightened than the rest of us poor ignorant souls who must rely on facts to determine the truth. But their truth isn’t grounded in reality. They’ve just been bopped on the head by an acorn and, not fully understanding the origin and science of the acorn, they believe it is a chunk of the sky. Condemned to wander through life in an altered state as a result of their acorn-induced concussion, they chant their misperceived mantra, “The sky is falling and that’s the truth.”

I hate to take issue with the man who invented the Internet, but the truth is never inconvenient. It’s just the truth. What’s sad is that so many people are swayed by the cleverly packaged propaganda presented by modern-day Chicken Littles. Why are the masses so gullible? When it comes to issues concerning agriculture, I think part of the reason is most of the populace have no connection to or comprehension of the industry. Unlike the classrooms of yesteryear, schoolchildren are taught more about political correctness and pseudo environmentalism instead of learning how their country cousins keep them fed and clothed while practicing true conservation. It’s easy to see how our city cousins can be duped when they are being fed a lot of bull by activists who don’t know a bull from a cow.

Don’t believe for a minute that all of this bull is just being swallowed hook, line and sinker in the blue counties on the electoral map (the ones Al Gore carried). It’s happening in the red states of America’s breadbasket. In 2005, the Oklahoma state attorney general filed suit against 13 poultry processors seeking unspecified compensation to clean up the damage caused by alleged violations of state and federal environmental and agricultural laws. Note, alleged violations. The attorney general claimed the sky is falling in his reelection campaign ads, making statements such as “our rivers shouldn’t be open sewers for the poultry industry, so we’re taking action to stop them from polluting our waters” and “near the dump fields the water is like r aw sewage” and “downstream the river gets choked with algae, not to mention phosphorus and bacteria like E. coli.” This is a case of Chicken Little taking on Big Chicken. And he’s enlisting the help of the same attorneys who successfully sued Big Tobacco for Big Bucks. Can you say Foxy Loxy?

The poultry industry provides the livelihood for a lot of people in Oklahoma. But I’m afraid most Oklahomans are too far removed from the chicken coop to know the difference between fowl fact and fiction. Keep your eye on what happens with this lawsuit, because if it succeeds it will be coming to a theater near you. Once the Foxy Loxys get their bellies full of chicken, they’ll develop a taste for pork, beef and maybe even organically grown spinach.

The bottom line is this. We are engaged in a game of chicken with the Chicken Littles. For an up-to-date look at how the game is being played, read “The Green Wave Aims at Agriculture” by Jacque Matsen in the Fall 2006 issue of National Cattlemen. We think that facts are facts and that the truth should stand on its own. But the fact is that Chicken Littles will claim falling acorns are falling skies when the truth is inconveniently lacking in support of their agendas. We tend to be isolationists who are only concerned about our little segments in the great big world of food production. Who cares about chicken producers! It doesn’t affect me. But remember these words of Martin Niemoeller, the German clergyman who was incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II:

First they came for the Communists,
  and I didn’t speak up,
    because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Social Democrats,
  and I didn’t speak up,
    because I wasn’t a Social Democrat.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
  and I didn’t speak up,
    because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew,
Then they came for me,
  and by that time there was no one
    left to speak up for me.

It makes no difference if you are a cow-calf producer in Montana or an organic spinach grower in California, it’s time for everyone in agriculture to realize that we are all in the food business. We have to proactively educate the world about the positive contributions we make to their lives and our society every day.

Consider how an early day version of Chicken Little ends. Foxy Loxy’s plot was foiled when the king’s hounds caught wind of him: “How Foxy Loxy ran, across the meadows and through the forests, with the hounds close behind. He ran until he was far, far away and never dared to come back again.” Sounds like tort reform to me. And Chicken Little found a cure for her misguided environmental activism: “After that day, Chicken Little always carried an umbrella with her when she walked in the woods. The umbrella was a present from the king. And if – KERPLUNK – an acorn fell, Chicken Little didn’t mind a bit. In fact, she didn’t notice it at all.”

Please e-mail comments to Jim Whitt at jim@whittenterprises.com.

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