Greta Mart: Listeners, in the final hours before polls close, we are airing the last segment in a series on what we’ve heard in our reporting on Measure J.

I’m here with KRCB’s Noah Abrams. Measure J asks voters….should Sonoma County ban concentrated animal feeding operations, known as CAFOs.

Now we are going to look at Measure J vis-a-vis animal welfare. Noah, we’re going to hear from both sides on this? Both mention Prop 12, that was the 2018 statewide ballot measure that passed by 63% of the vote to 37%; the law outlaws the use of cages for hens, sows, and veal calves in California and bans the sale of products from caged animals from out of state.

They also talk about Prop 2, the 2008 ballot measure that passed by the same vote percentage. It’s called the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. 

Noah Abrams: Yes, here’s ‘Yes on J’’s Lewis Bernier, then ‘No on J’s Mike Weber speaking at KRCB’s Sept. 18 debate.

Lewis Bernier: You don't actually have to be a factory farm investigator to understand that the more animals you can find in a farm, the worse the conditions are going to be. And there's a reason that in Sonoma County, we're proud of our small farms....but there are some that are very large, and I think everyone can understand that when you can find hundreds of thousands of animals in an industrial shed, there are animal welfare issues with that. And CAFO operators, factory farm operators, want us to believe that there is no limit to the number of animals you can confine in a single facility, and the animal welfare conditions will be totally fine. But these are the same people that told us when Prop 12 and Prop 2 came along, that chickens are happier in cages. They want to confine as many animals as they can, because it makes more money. It's the profit incentives.

Mike Weber: First off, California has the most stringent animal welfare standards in the country. They put forward what's called California Prop 12. Every one of the farms in California producing eggs has to be cage free. It had to go in by 2020...That's an environment that's more suitable for the environment for the birds to exhibit all their natural behaviors. They're out on the ground, they're in an aviary environment. They are inside where they're protected from pathogens and other things, but...the system is designed by animal welfare specialists to make sure that they've got the highest level of care.

Noah Abrams: So there are lots of different points of analysis when it comes to questions around animal welfare. Props 2 and 12 set high standards compared to the rest of the country for how egg laying hens, calves, and pigs are treated; and those standards didn't just materialize, it took concerted effort and received a lot of pushback from the industry.

Much the same with public health concerns, the rules are only as good as they're enforced. Here’s Dr. Randi Black, dairy advisor at the UC Cooperative Extension.

Randi Black: Animals, which include our pets, are not humans, and we often anthropomorphize them, which means that we give our animals, any animals, human characteristics or traits or emotions or whatever it might be, um, when they may not or likely do not have those characteristics. I've talked with a number of people who have expressed, you know, sadness that cows are in a barn. But again, research shows us that cows often prefer to be in a barn. And, you know, when it's hot, it's cooler in the barn. If it's raining, it's dry in the barn. If the grass is brown, well there's feed in the barn. And so the cows will always prefer safety, good food, nutritious food, and, and a climate that they prefer in a barn over being out on pasture. And I truly believe that animal welfare is incredibly important. It is the highest importance to our animal production managers, owners, and they do not take this issue lightly. And so...one of the other examples I always use is that...if you're feeding your cat or your dog because you think that you're meeting their needs and you're providing them a good life, but in fact they're obese, you're in fact putting them at a risk for a multitude of, of health concerns...And so it again, goes back to this idea that we need to treat animals as the animals that they are.

Greta Mart: Yes, other experts told me the same thing. Dr. Gary Butcher has been a poultry veterinarian for 35 years. 

Gary Butcher: I guess if I'm a person who didn't know about it, I mean, when I picture a chicken, I want a chicken running around in green grass out in the pasture, I'm not realizing that there's chicken hawks and, and every other kind of predator just loving it, you know, because they're gonna eat them up…. and parasites and diseases and influenza.”

Noah Abrams: Then you have a whole other school of thought suggested by Temple Grandin…the prominent proponent of the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. She was instrumental in changing attitudes and behavior in terms of animal welfare. 

Greta Mart: Indeed. Well, Noah, we are out of time, and to sum up, I think we can all agree that no matter the vote outcome for Measure J…it certainly has started many conversations about where our food comes from…

Noah Abrams:  Yep, and at least in Sonoma County, we’ll get some kind of answer at the ballot box.

Greta Mart: Thank you for all your hard work on this series, Noah. You’re tuned to KRCB