This is farming country. I'l like to buy these assholes one-way tickets out of Sonoma.

They are just fronts and shills for the realators who want to build apartment buildings everywhere.

Bastards.

We need a LOT more cows, chickens and wine grapes and a lot FEWER people here in Sonoma county

Can you point me to info that realtors are behind it?

Here is one article, there are others...

They are trying to build apartments everywhere they can, water and traffic be damned. Every farm they can close down and run out of business is more land to add more people.

The people pushing this, if you lived here you'd know, don't give a damn about the people of Sonoma County or Farmers. They are the kind of vandals that trespassed onto family farms that just a short time later had outbreaks of diseases.

They are tyring to destroy everything that makes this place worth living in.

So, the realtors are vandals? Or the realtors are working with vandals?

There is a lot of open space in Sonoma county, and the bigger farms are not that close to the more densely populated areas where apartment buildings are located.

Can you share any sources to support your opinions about realtors (and vandals) being behind this?

Instead of being pretty obvious. The unholy combination of real-estate developers and the idiots who think a housing crisis will be solved by building more apartments but with no parking and with limited water..

Nope.

This bill is so obviously bad for anyone who isn't a real-estate developer or the kind of nutcase that hates farms and animal husbandry that hopefully anyone supporting it is going to be made a pariah and/or boycotted.

Farms, not apartments, open space, not more people. Respect farmers and not the dolts and useful idiots who want to harass them out of business.

I'm done; if you don't live here, you don't understand either the horror of watching open space built in to monstrous towers not the nutcase fanaticism of the people what want to end all farming except maybe tiny organic veggie farms.

I'm going to be walking precincts, donating, and putting up signs to stop these bastards.

More cows and grapes, fewer people.

The Coalition to End Factory Farming's ballot measure makes no references to apartments, or to the "idiots" who think that more housing would help the housing crisis... Can you point me to these "monstrous towers" that are replacing open spaces and farms in Sonoma county?

FUCK THAT

You're making a lot of baseless claims and assertions, which you seem unable to support with anything other than your opinion, which is clearly very biased against the measure. I prefer to make an informed decision based on facts and reality. I guess that makes me one of your "dolts."

you are far, far worse than a dolt. You are nothing short of someone who wants to destroy the county I grew up in. You know nothing of this county except to support the vile extremists who want to ruin it.

I will do everything in my power to see this go down to defeat.

If you would bother to read what the people who put this on the ballot- Coalition to End Factory Farming (aka Direct Action Everywhere) say in their own opinion articals, their goal is to end *ALL* meat production or use of animals.

It's one thing to be vegan, it's something else to legislate that everyone be vegan

"I enjoyed the February editorial theme “We Love Our Pets”. Those of us who have animal companions in our lives know first-hand the love, joy, and deep bond that is shared with our non-human family members. The stories were heartwarming and inspirational, and a way to share with the community the importance of love and compassion towards all beings. There were also a few articles in the edition about poultry farming and its long history in Sonoma County. This raised some questions for me about how we reconcile our love for animals with the reality that most of our meat, eggs, and dairy come from CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), AKA factory farms, which are in stark contrast with the idea of love and compassion for all. I wonder why we differentiate between a chicken that is a “pet” and a chicken that is in a factory farm. Both are equally capable of feeling love, joy, sorrow, and pain. Is it that one has been reduced to “poultry” – a commodity – rather than the living, breathing, sentient being that it really is?

What I do know is that somehow as a society we have accepted that subjecting a chicken (or a duck, pig, cow, and so on) to a life of misery is justifiable if we plan to eat them (or their eggs). The reality is that birds on factory farms are deprived of every basic need and instinct besides food and water, and even that may be out of reach if they become sick or injured without being noticed. Birds that die prematurely usually die slow, agonizing deaths. Many starve or are even cannibalized due to overcrowding and stress. This has all been well documented. The industry’s “loss” (premature death) tolerance is somewhere around 20%-30% – it is more profitable for that many animals to suffer and die than it is to provide adequate veterinary care. And they get away with it.

I find it abominable that animals in factory farms are denied access to the outdoors. They will never feel the sun on their back, earth under their feet, run, play, or get to forage. For most, their entire life will be living in the awful stench of their own waste and death, on metal wire, grates, or concrete.

Nothing about this is natural or humane, despite what these companies promise on their websites and labels. These animals will never know anything but suffering.

As I write, four animal rights activists (of the hundreds who participated) are facing trial here in Sonoma County for investigating and exposing the reality inside Sunrise Farms (2018) and Reichardt Duck Farm (2019) and rescuing 69 birds between the two. The activists repeatedly reported violations of animal welfare laws to the authorities, but the authorities did nothing. Instead of investigating reports of illegal conduct at these facilities, and prosecuting the real criminals, the Sonoma County DA is prosecuting the activists who were merely extending love and compassion to farm animals.

We cannot claim to love animals, but then only love the ones we keep for pets and forsake the ones whose flesh, or eggs, we eat. We’ve been tricked into believing that this hypocrisy is acceptable and a necessary evil, but all the money in the world will never make it okay. And make no mistake, factory farming is about money, not nutrition. I eat a plant-based diet, and I am healthier than ever. We can and must do better. Show your support here: https://righttorescue.com/"

https://www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/opinion-who-decides-which-animals-deserve-love-and-compassion-and-which-on/

Sorry, nope; trying to force your lifestyle on me will *always* be resisted.

These people hate farm, farming, and all non vegans.

Not to mention insults.

Sonoma was traditionally a farming community serving meats and veges and wines to the Bay Area. It serves that function today too. With the value of real estate and the cost of labor skyrocketing scale is the thing that lets ag continue around here. There are some big operations but very few that get close to true ‘factory farm’ scale. (Unless you count wine growing, of course). So I too question the motives of the initiatives backers.

We need to have food production close to where it’s consumed to reduce transportation related greenhouse gasses. Kick the chicken producers out of Petaluma and what? Poultry products from the really giant factory farms in Arkansas?

is a "factory farm"?

It's bad for the environment, it's bad for the workers, and it's bad for the animals.

It's not really any kind of necessity, and if it went away I wouldn't miss it. (Obviously this is my own personal opinion and not representative of any Democratic Party platform...)

The two most environmentally destructive activities humans engage in are burning fossil fuels and agriculture. We ought to quit fossil fuels entirely and minimize the environmental impacts of agriculture as much as possible.