The measure to limit so-called ‘factory farming’ would be the first county ordinance of its kind in the United States if passed in November, and groups for and against it rallied separately Saturday to press their cases.
Andrea Krout-Sanchez and her children Henry, 3, and Lucas Sanchez, 1, cheer on the tractors at a No On Measure J rally at Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa on Saturday, October 5, 2024. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
ANNA ARMSTRONG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
October 5, 2024, 6:31PM
Entering the 30-day home stretch before Election Day, opponents and supporters of Measure J, the contentious Nov. 5 ballot measure that would limit the size of dairies and poultry farms in Sonoma County, held competing, back-to-back rallies in downtown Santa Rosa on Saturday.
Measure J has been the highest profile, most polarizing initiative on the local ballot, with opposing campaigns offering vastly different visions about how it would impact Sonoma County.
If passed, the measure would phase out larger farming operations known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, which Measure J advocates refer to as “factory farms.”
On Saturday, opponents of the ballot measure said the proposal would hurt family farms, threaten jobs and the local agricultural economy. Supporters of the ballot measure, on the other hand, argued that the measure supports small farms, animals and the environment.
Calls to keep pressure on
Jordan Mahrt, whose family owns and operates Petaluma Farms, said Measure J would shut down family farms for no good reason and said all but one farm in the region is family owned.
Mahrt was there with his parents, brothers, children and their old GMC farm truck.
Speaking about local farmers, Mahrt said: “We all support each other -- 99% of the farms in Sonoma County are family farms. Size and scale has nothing to do with animal welfare or animal husbandry.”
Measure J would be the first county ordinance of its kind in the United States if passed in November, and both sides in the initiative see it as a steppingstone for future legislative efforts. (Berkeley, with no large animal farms, is voting on a similar ban in November that would be largely symbolic.)
Farming representatives see Measure J as a worrying political test with potentially far-reaching implications — in a left-leaning county with a significant farming economy. Other areas with even larger farm sectors could be next, they say.
Cindy Steffy, a longtime Cotati resident originally from San Francisco, attended the No on J rally on Saturday because the Cotati City Council is reconsidering their decision to take no position on Measure J.
“I moved to Petaluma in 1970 and my formative years were spent there and I know a lot of the farmers involved in this,” she said. “I have been to the farms. It’s an awful thing for another group to try to take away our way of life and choice.”
Executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, Dayna Ghirardelli, spoke at the rally and called on people to get involved in organizing efforts to oppose the measure.
Michael Benedetti of Clover Sonoma urged rally attendees to keep up the pressure against Measure J.
“I want to thank everyone for being out here because it takes a lot of energy to do this and support our way of life,” he said. “Continue to create energy and awareness around this so that this is defeated.”
Criticizing arguments about impact
The No on J event wrapped up at 12:30 p.m. Yes on J activists kicked off their activities shortly after at 1:15 p.m, also at Courthouse Square.
From there, the crowd of about 100 people marched through downtown Santa Rosa and dropped a banner over a pedestrian bridge on Highway 101 near A Street.
Forestville resident Diana Rousseau has advocated against the type of farms Measure J is targeting for many years, working to pass statewide ballot measures, such as 2008’s Proposition 2, which sought to prevent cruelty to farm animals. She said Measure J helps both animals and the environment.
“I would like to finally see an end to extreme confinement factory farming for animals in my lifetime,” Rousseau said. “It’s just really important to get the message out there about what life is really like for animals on these farms.”
Amy Bandiera, a lifelong resident of Santa Rosa, became an organizer with the Yes on J campaign after meeting members at a farmer’s market. She gave a speech at a stop along the march, criticizing the No on J campaign for saying the measure would cut numerous jobs and hurt the economy.
“A lot of the big factory farms nowadays are automated,” Bandiera said. “The CAFOs affected by Measure J actually provide a very small number of jobs in comparison to the smaller, hands-on farms.”
To that point, Cassie King, an organizer with the Coalition to End Factory Farming behind the ballot measure, said the measure includes a worker retraining program that the county would offer workers impacted by farms that choose to close rather than downsize.
At most, King said, if all the county’s farms that would fall under Measure J closed, that would affect a “small fraction of a percent of the workforce in Sonoma County.”
‘Important to listen’
The back-to-back rallies took place independently and there were no clashes between supporters and opponents.
Terry Sanders, the campaign manager for the No on J campaign, attended the Yes on J event at Courthouse Square, and held a congenial conversation with Yes on J supporters about the nuances of the ballot measure.
“When you take a minute to suspend your own thought process and hear what the other side has to say, it will do one of two things,” Sanders said. “It will either solidify your thought process or give you the opportunity to rethink something you maybe thought was one way but is actually another. To be a champion of No on J, its important to listen.”
As outlined in the ballot measure, an “animal feeding operation,” or AFO, is a plot of land where animals are “stabled or confined and fed or maintained for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and crops, vegetation, forage growth or post-harvest residues are not sustained in the normal growing season over any portion” of the property.
An AFO becomes a CAFO once it exceeds a certain size, depending on the animal — farms with more than 700 dairy cows, or 85,000 egg laying hens, or 125,000 chickens raised for meat. The Yes on Measure J campaign says 21 farms in Sonoma County fit that definition.
A “medium-scale” farm also could fit the definition if it discharges manure directly into surface water, a practice not permitted in Sonoma County. But Measure J advocates argue that since no medium-sized farms in the county have been documented discharging into surface water, it would affect only the 21 largest dairies and poultry farms.
The county’s Economic Development Board, meanwhile, in an analysis for the Board of Supervisors, identified 11 facilities that exceed the large-scale CAFO threshold, and also included 49 medium-scale operations that could be affected.
The Yes on Measure J campaign is staging a Community Town Hall at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Central Santa Rosa Library. Organizers will give a brief presentation, then take questions from the audience.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect corrections to Cassie King’s title and the designation of Proposition 2. King is an organizer with the Coalition to End Factory Farming. Prop. 2 was a 2008 statewide ballot measure that sought to prevent cruelty to farm animals.
Contact Staff Writer Anna Armstrong at 707-521-5255 or anna.armstrong@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @annavarmstrongg.