Arkansas Times

Bill targeting farming moratorium on the Buffalo River sent back to committee

by Phillip PowellApril 9, 2025 5:24 pm

A bill that threatens to allow industrial hog farming in the Buffalo National River watershed just hit another speedbump on its way to the governor’s desk.

Senate Bill 290, a measure championed by the agriculture industry, passed out of both the House Agriculture and Senate Agriculturecommittees on close votes after being stalled in the Legislature for months. But on Tuesday, Rep. DeAnn Vaught (R-Horatio) voluntarily had the bill referred back to the House Agriculture Committee just as they were getting close to passage, saying that they intended to amend it.

In the House hearing on Monday, members of Gov. Sarah Sanders’ administration testified against the bill, but it still passed narrowly with only Republican votes. The Arkansas Times reached out to the governor’s office for comment on whether she would veto the bill or not, and did not hear back. Her office stopped short of telling the Arkansas Advocate that she would veto the bill last week as it began making more progress.

The bill would limit the ability of the state Department of Agriculture and the state Department of Energy and Environment to place a moratorium on farming in a watershed. To do so, state agencies would need to propose a rule that would require renewal every four years. Like most state agency rules, it would be subject to approval by the Legislature before going into effect. 

The bill would also require the Legislature to reconsider current farming permit moratoriums, such as the bans in the watersheds of Lake Maumelle and the Buffalo River, within 90 days of the bill going into effect in January 2026. Giving the Legislature the opportunity to overturn the longstanding moratoriums on the two watersheds has drawn harsh opposition from conservation groups and proponents of outdoor recreation in the state.

The Arkansas Farm Bureau and Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association support the bill, and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Blake Johnson (R-Corning), said in the Senate hearing that the bill was drafted by the Farm Bureau.

While farm industry groups like the bill as protecting their “right to farm” from permit moratoriums, conservationists and proponents of the growing outdoor recreation economy in Arkansas believe the bill will make it more difficult for the state to protect important public waters like the Buffalo River from polluting industrial farms like large hog concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Groups like the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Sierra Club, and Ozark Society have been rushing to the state Capitol for weeks to make the case against the bill.

The moratorium on the Buffalo National River only applies to concentrated hog farms with more than 3,000 hogs weighing less than 55 pounds, or farms with more than 7 50 hogs weighing more than 55 pounds. The moratorium was approved by the Legislature in 2014, but new rules are needed now that the state Department of Agriculture has permitting authority over CAFOs.

The new fight over industrial farming in the Buffalo River watershed began last year when the state Department of Agriculture and state Department of Energy and Environment proposed two rules that would have made the CAFO moratorium permanent. But that effort stalled last December.