.Family Farm Fracas: Sebastopol Opposes Measure J

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, Sebastopol joined the cities of Cloverdale, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and Sonoma by having their City Council pass a resolution opposing Measure J, a measure on the Nov. 5 ballot that would phase out or scale down an estimated 21 animal farms in Sonoma County.

The city of Cotati decided to take no position, and the council in the town of Windsor will consider it soon.

Measure J targets large and medium-sized concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines a CAFO as any farm that keeps animals stabled or confined for 45 days or more during a 12-month period in an area where no significant vegetation can grow.

The measure’s opponents in Sebastopol argued in defense of legacy farm families. Several farmers spoke at the City Council meeting and said most of the county’s farms are certified organic and subject to strict regulations regarding the treatment of animals and waste. They also said it would impact farmworker housing and result in import truck traffic.

Measure J’s supporters said the ordinance would prevent the growth of more CAFOs. They pleaded with the council to remain neutral, saying the city had no business making a decision intended for the voters.

They argued that an analysis of Measure J presented to the county’s Board of Supervisors in May overestimated its economic impact.

In an email before the meeting, Cassie King of the campaign in support of Measure J said the measure’s opponents have deep pockets.

“They’ve raised over a million dollars,” King said. “The trade group Western United Dairies donated $300,000 to the opposition. The opposition also got $50,000 from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry and $50,000 from the National Pork Producers Council in Iowa.”

The Democratic and Republican Parties of Sonoma County have also stated their opposition to Measure J.

The city of Petaluma published an online statement saying that the measure’s 45 days per year limit on confinement would make dairy and poultry farming at any scale impossible because ranchers must house their animals against the elements in the winter months. Measure J includes an exception for animals that are moved to a temporary evacuation area in the case of natural disasters, which adds nuance to compliance.

Measure J also includes directives to the Sonoma County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures to enforce the new law and retrain factory farm workers. Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Andrew Smith said the measure would only add expenses.

“If Measure J were to pass, then we would need the county to use general fund dollars to pay for the development of a system for receiving, investigating, and retaining complaints related to CAFOs as defined in the ballot initiative’s language,” he said in an email, adding that job training is not historically the responsibility of agricultural commissioners’ offices.

Smith also said that reducing the number of livestock operations in the county might impact agricultural support services and supply chain businesses.

The Measure J campaign literature says CAFOs generate environmental waste and greenhouse gasses. Methane emitted from cows and manure is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide emissions. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says researchers have found that 36% of methane pollution from human activity comes from livestock and agriculture. Still, the research does not say how much methane is produced from animal agriculture in Sonoma County.

Proponents also point to concerns about the density of animals conveying disease. Last year, an avian flu outbreak triggered the county Board of Supervisors to declare an emergency. Supervisor David Rabbitt said in December he was concerned because there were a million farm birds within five miles of one of the infected facilities.

The Coalition to End Factory Farming, which collected signatures to put Measure J on the ballot, is a coalition of small farm advocates and various animal rights groups, including Direct Action Everywhere, whose activism involves trespassing to obtain video footage inside farms and rescuing animals.

Their co-founder, Wayne Hsiung, was arrested last November on suspicion of felony trespassing at chicken and duck farms in 2018 and 2019. The coalition’s website highlights Sunrise Farms in Petaluma, which houses half a million chickens; Mertens Dairy in Sonoma, which has 900 cows in a dirt lot; Reichardt Duck Farm in Petaluma, which has 200,000 ducks on wire flooring; and various suppliers for Perdue chicken.

One of the public commenters at the Sebastopol meeting said the coalition just wants people to become vegetarians. Although plant-based meat alternatives are appearing in more grocery stores and on menus, the mass move away from meat is not substantial. A recent Gallup poll shows just 4% of Americans identify as vegetarian. A similar percentage was found by the Baltimore nonprofit the Vegetarian Resource Group, which also found that three-fifths of U.S. households now eat vegetarian at least on occasion.