A decade ago, California voters rattled the U.S. farm sector and set off years of lawsuits by approving a referendum to give egg-laying chickens, sows and veal calves the room to stand up, lie down, turn around and fully extend their limbs. On Nov. 6, the electorate could do it again, this time by specifying how many square feet each animal would get and by banning the sale of meat and eggs from farms that do not comply with the rules.
Proponents, organized under the name Prevent Cruelty California, expect to win by landslide margins. They have the backing of well-known animal welfare groups and, at mid-summer, had $1.6 million left for campaign spending ahead of the Nov. 6 general election. The campaign had raised $4.7 million in total, with The Humane Society of the United States contributing $1.9 million.
By contrast, opponents operating as Californians Against Cruelty, Cages and Fraud, had $540,000 in funds available out of $550,000 donated by the Humane Farming Action Fund.
Proposition 12 would require farmers, beginning in 2020, to give veal calves 43 square feet of floor space apiece, pregnant sows 24 square feet of floor space, and 1 square foot for egg-laying hens. Beginning in 2022, floor space for hens would be determined by the cage-free guidelines of the trade group United Egg Producers.
In a political oddity, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the National Pork Producers Council, a farm group, both oppose Prop 12. “This would affect farmers all over the place,” said NPPC spokesman Dave Warner, because producers outside of California would have to meet the California standards in order to sell their products in the most populous state in the nation. That “seems a clear violation of the Commerce clause,” he said. The Constitution put Congress in charge of interstate commerce.
Similar arguments were raised against Proposition 2, approved in a 2008 vote and strengthened in a 2010 law. The Supreme Court refused in May to hear a challenge from six states that contended California imposed its standards on farmers in other states. The House-passed farm bill includes a provision, by Iowa Rep. Steve King, to block states from regulating agricultural production in other states.
PETA says it opposes Prop 12 as too weak and deceptive. “What it would actually do is allow farms to keep egg-laying hens in cages until 2022, at which time factory farms would still be able to confine uncaged hens to massive, crowded sheds with only 1 square foot of space per bird.”