Why Measure J?
Sunrise’s main facility in Petaluma
In 2024, Sonoma County has the opportunity to lead the transition toward a just and sustainable food system. Across the country, record numbers of animals are languishing in cruel conditions, human-caused climate change is wreaking havoc, quickly-evolving zoonotic diseases are threatening another pandemic, and corporate monopolies are pricing working class families out of basic necessities. These issues are all connected by the exponential rise of factory farming.
Measure J is a citizen-initiated ballot measure to prohibit Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), which are also commonly called factory farms, in Sonoma County. Measure J uses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) definition of a CAFO without any alterations. The EPA defines a CAFO as an animal feeding operation (AFO) that exceeds specified animal population limits or causes substantial pollution. The Coalition to End Factory Farming, the ballot committee for Measure J, estimates there are 21 CAFOs in Sonoma County, all of which meet the federal definition of a large CAFO and together confine around 3 million animals. See the map of CAFOs in Sonoma County here. Measure J would require these 21 facilities to either close or downsize to below the federal threshold for a large CAFO over a 3-year period. It would also prevent new CAFOs from coming into Sonoma County.
The numerous issues with CAFOs are well-documented, and some attempts have been made to address them. The Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, and the American Public Health Association have all called for moratoriums on CAFOs.In 2023, Jared Huffman, along with 38 other House Democrats, co-sponsored the Farm System Reform Act (FSRA), which would have placed a moratorium on and phased out all large CAFOs. Our coalition drew inspiration from Senator Cory Booker’s 2019 version of the FSRA when drafting Measure J. For decades, Big Ag has employed oil-industry-style tactics to block regulation like the FSRA and interfere with effective enforcement of existing laws at every turn. Now, with the Supreme Court overturning of the Chevron Doctrine, and Project 2025 poised to gut what remains of the USDA and EPA, it is becoming even more clear that local jurisdictions must lead the way when it comes to addressing factory farming.
A Petaluma Poultry chicken CAFO in Santa Rosa
Reichardt Duck CAFO in Petaluma
Photos from Direct Action Everywhere.
Measure J will protect millions of animals from abuse.
CAFOs treat animals as production units in order to maximize profits. Animals in CAFOs are often subjected to extreme overcrowding and confinement, preventing them from exhibiting natural behaviors and leading to chronic stress and physical ailments. In order to facilitate the concentration of large numbers of animals, painful mutilations such as cutting off the beaks of chickens are routinely practiced. Animals in CAFOs are also routinely “culled” or left to die when they become sick or injured, rather than receiving veterinary care. Ezra Klein explains how factory farms incentivize cruelty, “The way you win that competition is to pack more animals into your sheds, pump them fuller of antibiotics so they don’t die from infections that flourish amid overcrowding, raise breeds that live lives of pain but grow with astonishing speed, create massive manure lagoons that poison streams and turn air acrid. The result is a brutal incentive to mechanize the process of livestock production in ways cruel to the animals, the farmers, and their communities.”
Investigations into factory farms in Sonoma County have revealed severe and systemic animal welfare issues and widespread disease, but the authorities have refused to prosecute the companies or stop the abuse. For example, investigations into Reichardt Duck Farm by Mercy for Animals in 2014 and by Direct Action Everywhere in 2019 and 2023 have exposed a decade of extreme neglect, including diseased ducks left stuck on their backs, unable to get up, and consequently unable to reach food or water in violation of California Penal Code Section 597. Activists and attorneys have shared this video evidence along with veterinary and legal opinions with the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, the Sheriff’s Office, Animal Services, and local police departments, but time and time again, no action is taken and the abuse continues. Reichardt is the largest duck farm in California, confining over 200,000 ducks inside sheds where they live on wire flooring with no access to water for swimming, an important natural behavior.
Another example is poultry giant Perdue Foods, which operates four chicken CAFOs in Sonoma County through its subsidiary Petaluma Poultry, a supplier to major grocery chains, including Costco and Safeway. Since 2018, investigators have documented routine violations of California's animal cruelty laws at several Petaluma Poultry factory farms and the company’s slaughterhouse, including birds collapsed on the floor or stuck on their backs and unable to walk to food or water, left to slowly starve to death; birds with splayed legs; and birds with open wounds. Through lab testing, they also identified numerous infectious pathogens and diseases present at Petaluma Poultry factory farms in the county, including Infectious Bursal Disease, Infectious Bronchitis Virus, and a highly antibiotic-resistant Enterococcus bacteria. These reports, too, have been ignored by the authorities. Rather than prosecute Petaluma Poultry, the Sonoma County District Attorney has embraced “Ag-Gag”-style repression, and chosen to prosecute the whistleblowers who documented these conditions and rescued animals from abuse.
At all of the six dairy CAFOs in Sonoma County, calves are separated from their mothers and confined in small hutches in order to maximize how much of the mothers’ milk can be sold. Mistreatment like this is the outcome of maximizing profits over what is natural and healthy for animals. Earlier this year, The Atlantic published a shocking exposé of a Northern California dairy, in which Annie Lowrey writes of the standard practices in commercial dairies, including organic and pasture-based dairies, “Dairy cows are repeatedly inseminated or bred, calved, and separated from their babies…And when their bodies begin to give out, they keep getting milked until they are euthanized or slaughtered.” Dr. Brenda Forsythe, PhD, DVM, who is supporting Measure J, says, “The factory farming industry genetically manipulates animals in ways that risk their health and wellbeing. Dairy cows and egg-laying hens are pushed to produce such high output that their bodies become exhausted after just a few years. In 1950, the average dairy cow produced around 5,000 pounds of milk a year, but today, she produces almost 20,000 pounds.” When their milk production declines around 5 years of age, dairy cows are considered “spent” and sent to slaughter. In natural conditions, cows can live 20 to 25 years.
Local and federal agencies have failed to protect animals suffering in factory farms. Measure J gives voters the opportunity to protect animals directly.
Measure J will protect water and aquatic ecosystems
According to the CDC, “The agriculture sector, including CAFOs, is the leading contributor of pollutants to lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.” Nearly every stream and river in Sonoma County is listed by the EPA as impaired due in part to “nitrogen and/or phosphorus” and “bacteria and microbes” of which animal waste is a primary source. These include the Petaluma River, Laguna de Santa Rosa, and Sonoma Creek. The SF Bay Regional Water Board said of the Petaluma River Watershed in a 2019 report: “Fecal bacteria originating from cow and horse waste were identified by the MST study at very high rates throughout the watershed, in both dry and wet seasons. Considering the large number of CAFs and the quantity of animals they typically house, as well as the amount of waste they tend to produce, they are a significant source of FIB [fecal indicator bacteria] in the watershed.” This water pollution is so prevalent because CAFOs produce a massive amount of waste. A single mature dairy cow produces around 150 pounds of waste per day, which means that the approximately 6,000 cows confined on dairy CAFOs in Sonoma County produce almost twice the amount of waste as the entire human population of Sonoma County. That waste is then primarily stored in open pits and dumped onto the land untreated.
Mertens Dairy CAFO in Sonoma where 900 cows live in a feedlot with no access to pasture
A manure lagoon the size of two football fields at Mertens
While the EPA is theoretically tasked with oversight of CAFO water pollution, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that “EPA does not have comprehensive, accurate information on the number of permitted CAFOs nationwide. As a result, EPA does not have the information it needs to effectively regulate these CAFOs.” The EPA has faced severe criticism and lawsuits from prominent environmental groups including the National Resource Defense Council, Food and Water Watch, and Center for Biological Diversity for their failure to effectively regulate CAFOs. As a result, the task of challenging CAFOs has largely fallen on individuals such as environmental attorneys and activists. Last year two county CAFOs were sued over violations of the Clean Water Act; Reichardt Duck Farm settled the lawsuit and Mulas Dairy decided to close their operation.
By prohibiting CAFOs, which will effectively set limits on the number of animals that can be confined in a single operation, Measure J will reduce water pollution and protect our important watersheds.
Measure J will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the Sierra Club, "CAFOs also accelerate climate change by their disproportionate production of greenhouse gasses. The Sierra Club opposes the establishment of new CAFOs, and supports the phasing out of existing operations as expeditiously as possible.” The bulk of factory farm emissions come from methane and nitrous oxide which are emitted by the digestive systems and decomposing waste of animals. Although these greenhouse gasses often go ignored, they pose a significantly greater climate warming risk in the immediate term compared to carbon dioxide. Methane is considered to have more than 80 times the global warming potential of CO₂ over a 20-year period, while nitrous oxide has a staggering 265x impact on global warming. Storing massive amounts of this waste in open pits, called “manure retention ponds,” leads to a significant increase in methane emissions because it creates an anaerobic environment where methane-emitting bacteria thrive. CAFOs exacerbate this issue because when a large number of animals are confined together, even if they have access to pasture at some times, it leads to more waste being concentrated. According to the EPA, animal agriculture is the largest source of methane nationwide, and the second largest source of nitrous oxide.
In Sonoma County, livestock manure management is the third largest emissions source, according to the Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA) 2020 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory.The RCPA says that manure management in the county produces 386,913 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent annually, equal to the amount emitted by 92,000 gasoline powered cars over the same timeframe. Sequestering just one year of that CO₂ would require planting over 6 million trees and allowing them to grow for 10 years. Reducing factory farm emissions would result in significant progress on the ambitious county goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2030.
Measure J will safeguard public health.
The water pollution and emissions from CAFOs also cause adverse health effects within surrounding communities. According to the NIH, “Toxic gasses, vapors, and particles are emitted from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) into the general environment. These include ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, malodorous vapors, and particles contaminated with a wide range of microorganisms.” Another NIH study focused on poultry CAFOs reports, “Populations exposed to these chemicals may be at risk for a host of adverse health outcomes. Exposure to airborne ammonia and volatile organic compounds can aggravate lung function and may cause chronic lung disease, while hydrogen sulfide can cause inflammation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Particulate matter may worsen lung function and can cause irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, and other cardiac abnormalities.”
Additionally, CAFOs pose a risk of transmitting zoonotic diseases to humans from animals. With large numbers of genetically similar animals concentrated in confined areas, and often living on top of their own waste, CAFOs provide a perfect breeding ground for diseases to develop and spread. The CDC reports that 3 out of every 4 new or emerging infectious diseases in humans come from animals. A zoonotic disease caused the swine flu (H1N1) outbreak in 2009-2010. The CDC estimates that 151,700-575,400 people worldwide died from H1N1 during the first year the virus circulated. There are still outbreaks happening all over the world. Avian flu is another example of a zoonotic disease that has killed humans in the past and is currently evolving, posing a grave threat to humans and other animals. The confluence of confined poultry and cow facilities in Sonoma County, a county within a major migration route for wild birds, poses a serious risk of replicating the bird-to-cow-to-human jumps of H5N1 that have recently occurred in Texas and Michigan, and that public health experts have warned threatens a possible pandemic.
Another public health risk of CAFOs is sick animals entering the food supply and making consumers sick. In 2022, Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry, which slaughters birds from chicken CAFOs throughout the county, was placed in Category 3, the USDA’s worst category for salmonella levels. A Press Democrat article that year titled “Perdue’s Petaluma poultry plant struggles to eliminate bacteria that can make people sick” reported, “The Petaluma facility had the fourth-highest rate among 60 California processors of chicken parts from the beginning of September 2020 to the end of August 2021. Perdue Petaluma’s rate of 16.7% was nearly four times the state average.” Regarding Campylobacter, another pathogen that causes illness in humans, the article reported, “63% of the whole carcasses tested at Perdue Petaluma, and 61% of the chicken parts tested, were positive for campylobacter. That’s close to four times the national rate.”
The American Public Health Association, which is the largest association of public health professionals in the world, called for a moratorium on CAFOs over a decade ago.
Measure J will level the playing field and benefit small farms.
It is well-known that across the US, large factory farms are taking over our food system, using monopolistic practices to push out small farms and control consumer pricing. This same process is also taking place in Sonoma County. There were over 4,000 egg farms in the county in 1941. By 2015, however, that number had dropped to 157, with two large companies, Sunrise Farms LLC and Petaluma Farms, dominating the entire commercial industry. Sunrise Farms operates multiple CAFOs in the county, including one on Liberty Road in Petaluma that confines over 500,000 chickens.
Roy Smith, operator of a small, diverse animal farm in Penngrove called Green Goose Farm, says, "Since the 1950's, industrial poultry CAFOs have been able to outcompete local family farms by using cheap transport and supply chains, minimal amounts of poorly paid labor, and by externalizing environmental costs. Cheap food has come at the cost of our local economy and rural landscape. The first step in rebuilding our food system, and making family farms viable again, is to level the playing field. There is no playing field for small farmers as long as CAFOs occupy it, and they won't leave without an eviction notice."