Voters appear to have soundly rejected Sonoma County’s Measure J, a controversial initiative to ban so-called factory farms in one of the premier agricultural regions in California.
“We do not expect Measure J to pass,” said Kristina Garfinkel, an organizer with the Coalition to End Factory Farming. The measure was trailing by a whopping 70-point margin with approximately half the votes counted.
The initiative would have regulated the living conditions and quantity of animals large farms are allowed to keep, and likely forced certain “contained animal feeding operations” to either close or dramatically overhaul their businesses.
Although led by animal-welfare activists, the campaign also argued that limiting such facilities would promote worthy public health and environmental benefits. Major dairy producers funded a million-dollar-plus campaign to defeat the initiative.
