In November, voters in Sonoma County will vote on Measure J, which would ban factory farms in the rural California community where they reside. It’s one of the first ballot propositions of its kind, and if it passes, it could serve as a blueprint for similar efforts to end factory farming elsewhere in the country.
“Sonoma County is an agricultural county with factory farms that have been exposed for abusing animals, violating animal cruelty laws, and polluting waterways with toxic waste — and the authorities have failed to address it,” Cassie King, Communications Lead at Direct Action Everywhere, tells Sentient. Direct Action Everywhere is an animal rights organization, and one of the lead sponsors of Measure J. “So I think it’s kind of the perfect place to start, because it would have a significant tangible impact.”
The fight for Measure J is just one part of a broader movement by animal rights activists to ban factory farms; several other communities will be voting on similar ballot propositions in November. But what’s the big-picture strategy behind this movement — and will it actually help animals, or simply move meat production to other communities?
Which Other Communities Looking to Ban Factory Farms?
A similar ballot proposition, Measure DD, would ban Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the city of Berkeley, California. As of this writing, Berkeley doesn’t have any CAFOs, so in that sense, the measure is purely a symbolic attempt to prove that it’s possible to ban factory farms via ballot proposition…