California's Prop 2 widens animal space

By PHILIP BRASHER

Des Moines Register - Iowa

October 26, 2008

Washington, D.C. — A ballot measure in California is raising the dander of farmers around the nation.

The initiative, known as Proposition 2, would set new standards for livestock farms. Starting in 2015, all animals would have to have room to lie down, turn around and extend their legs or wings. The measure is intended to force farms to stop keeping hens in cages or sows in stalls.

In California, it would primarily affect egg-laying operations. The state has little pork industry.

But proponents and opponents agree the measure could have ramifications well beyond California if it passes. If nothing else, it would send a message to the next Congress, which is likely to be one of the most liberal in history.

"One of the major effects will be on the retail sector," said Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, which has spent more than $4 million so far on the campaign to pass Proposition 2. "It will be another indicator that the public finds these intensive confinement practices are out of bounds and unacceptable."

Passing the measure also would provide "additional momentum to our efforts at the federal level," Pacelle said.

One of the group's top priorities is a bill known as the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act, which would set animal-welfare standards for foods purchased for school lunches and any other federally funded nutrition programs. The bill didn't go anywhere this year, but its chances would almost improve dramatically if Proposition 2 passes.

Previous ballot measures to ban sow stalls in Florida and Arizona had little direct impact on farms, because neither of those states has significant pork production. But shortly after passage of the Arizona measure in 2006, pork company Smithfield Foods announced it was phasing out sow stalls. California, which ranks No. 6 in egg production and has an even bigger population than Florida or Arizona, now raises the stakes for agribusiness.

Animal-welfare activists "would be pretty emboldened by winning in California," said Dave Warner, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, which has contributed $10,000 toward the campaign against Proposition 2. "With a Congress and a White House that they're likely to have, why not take it nationally?"

Egg producers and other agribusiness interests are expected to spend $7 million campaigning against Proposition 2, matching the proponents' expenditures.

Nearly $300,000 in contributions to the anti-Proposition 2 campaign have come from egg farms and other business interests in Iowa, the nation's top producers of eggs. Producers also have chipped in from across the Midwest and from states such as New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Sparboe Farms, an egg producer based in Litchfield, Minn., has contributed $100,000. West Des Moines-based Hy-Line North America, a leading company in hen breeding, has given $40,000.

Mitch Head, a spokesman for the United Egg Producers, said the measure would put most egg farms out of business in California and increase egg prices.

His side also is working to raise concerns among voters about food safety by claiming that egg production would move from California to Mexico, an argument disputed by the Humane Society.

"They're attempting to stoke concerns about immigration and trade with Mexico," Pacelle said.

Little public polling has been done on the initiative, but what has been done showed broad support for it. But major newspapers in California, including the Los Angeles Times, have come out against it, and Head said he believes the measure's fate is still uncertain. "Both sides are moving all chips in," he said.

Pacelle said he's confident the measure will pass.

"At some point it becomes absurd for the industry to deny that the public is concerned about the welfare of animals raised for food," he said.

The industry is certainly paying attention.

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