FAQ

What is a CAFO?

CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), commonly referred to as “factory farms,” are intensive animal agriculture operations in which large numbers of animals are confined and/or a large amount of waste is created. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defined this term to classify farms that pose a risk of water pollution.

A large CAFO confines more than 125,000 chickens raised for meat, more than 82,000 egg-laying hens, or more than 700 mature dairy cows. A medium CAFO must contain the medium size range of animals listed by the EPA and also directly discharge animal waste into surface water, which no farms in Sonoma County are permitted to do. To learn more, read the EPA’s definition of CAFOs or check out their chart summarizing the CAFO definition.

What’s so bad about CAFOs?

CAFOs are bad for animals, the environment, local farmers, and public health. Despite bucolic imagery on their marketing, investigations into over a dozen CAFOs in Sonoma County have found rampant animal abuse, including animals left to slowly die without food or water. Emissions from industrial animal agricultural operations are a significant cause of climate change, with livestock contributing 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, which worsens the drought and wildfires in Sonoma County. As factory farming corporations have entered rural areas of Sonoma County with giant, windowless sheds, local farmers have been put out of business and residents have lost the benefits of quality food and a truly local economy. Workers at CAFOs face health risks due to exposure to harmful substances and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, as well as high rates of respiratory injuries, musculoskeletal injuries, and anxiety and depression. And finally, given that three out of four emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, CAFOs pose a serious risk to public health. Institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Public Health Association (APHA) are calling for action to protect against the harms of CAFOs. For all these reasons, the factory farming industry is one of the most destructive and harmful industries on the planet - an industry that is not in line with the values of Sonoma County residents.

Are there CAFOs in Sonoma County?

Yes. Sonoma County factory farms effectively market themselves as small-scale family farms, conjuring up images of animals roaming freely in fields, but the reality is that there are dozens of CAFOs in Sonoma County. Investigations into these farms have found rampant animal cruelty. You can learn more about Sonoma County CAFOs here.

Would this hurt small family farms?

No, in fact, it would help small, local family farms. This ordinance would only prohibit industrialized factory farms that confine large numbers of animals, for example farms with 82,000 or more egg-laying chickens, 2,500 or more pigs, or 700 or more cows, or farms that have been identified as significant contributors of pollutants. You can see the table of size limits in the text of the initiative. These massive factory farms often hurt small family farms. Small family farms cannot compete with industrial farming because factory farms externalize their costs onto animals, society, and the environment. This ordinance will help restore the local diverse agriculture that existed in Sonoma County before the factory farms moved in.

Is there a link between CAFOs and avian flu?

Yes. While avian flu is often carried by wild birds, CAFOs are a perfect location for avian flu and other viruses such as swine flu to rapidly spread. In CAFOs, massive numbers of animals (sometimes hundreds of thousands) are confined in crowded, unsanitary conditions. This allows viruses to easily spread from one animal to another. These conditions also increase the chances for viruses to mutate, causing new strains to emerge which could be even more contagious or deadly and could have the potential to infect humans. Because workers at CAFOs are often in close proximity to these animals, they are at higher risk of becoming infected and could carry the viruses out to the broader population.
In the past few years, viruses such as avian flu have wreaked havoc across the country, including in Sonoma County. Outbreaks have caused massive economic losses, unstable food prices, and extreme suffering, as animals who are potentially infected are “depopulated” with cruel methods such as “ventilation shutdown”, where airflow is turned off in the barns, heat and steam is pumped in, and animals are left to die of heatstroke over the course of hours. In order to prevent the next pandemic and protect workers, animals, and food security, it’s imperative that we phase out CAFOs. 

How do CAFOs harm animals?

There is overwhelming scientific evidence that nonhuman animals, including birds, are conscious, sentient beings who have emotions, personalities, and the ability to feel pain, fear, and stress. It is standard practice for animals in CAFOs to be mutilated without painkillers, confined indoors all or almost all of the time and prevented from expressing natural behaviors, denied access to veterinary care, and killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan. The majority of animals confined in Sonoma County CAFOs are chickens, ducks, and cows.

Chickens are emotionally complex animals who empathize with others, show a strong attachment to their chicks, can learn basic arithmetic, recognize up to 100 faces, and even have dreams. Chickens can live to be 10 or more years old, but the quality and length of their lives is dramatically reduced on factory farms.

• When “egg-laying” chickens hatch, they are separated by sex so that the male chicks, who will not lay eggs, can be immediately killed. The female chicks have the tips of their beaks removed - a painful procedure akin to having a finger cut off - in order to reduce cannibalism and fighting inside the massive barns. Hens in factory farms have been genetically manipulated to lay about twenty times more eggs than they would naturally in order to maximize profit. This causes serious, painful health complications such as prolapses, where a hen’s internal organs come out of her body, broken bones from calcium deficiency, cancer, and peritonitis, where yolk from a malformed or ruptured egg is deposited within the hen’s body cavity, causing inflammation and infection. When the hens inside a barn no longer lay enough eggs to be considered economically valuable to the industry, usually around 1.5-2 years old, the entire flock is “depopulated,” usually by gassing, by “cervical dislocation” (having their necks broken by hand), or in a slaughterhouse.

• Chickens raised for meat are killed at only 6-8 weeks of age. Their incredibly short lives are often filled with painful injuries because they have been genetically manipulated to grow so fast so quickly (in order to maximize profit) that their legs become deformed, splayed, or broken. In severe cases, these chickens will be unable to stand or walk to reach food or water and will slowly die of dehydration or starvation. Heart attacks due to rapid growth also occur regularly. Because chicken barns are only cleaned out after each flock, 6-8 weeks worth of feces and urine builds up on the barn floor, causing sores and irritation on the chickens’ feet and chests. When their 6-8 weeks are up, chickens are roughly placed or even thrown into small transport crates with a dozen or more other birds, beginning their terrifying journey to the slaughterhouse.

Ducks, like chickens, are cognitively complex animals who demonstrate social intelligence, use a diverse system of vocalizations and body language to communicate with each other, can problem-solve, and have excellent memories. Many of us probably have fond experiences of feeding ducks at a park or in a pond or lake, watching them swim and dunk under water, but in factory farms, ducks are denied the opportunity to express many of these natural behaviors.

• Ducks are mostly aquatic animals, but on factory farms there are no places for them to swim or clean themselves. Instead, they are kept indoors on feces-covered wire floors, causing pain and injury to their webbed feet. This is further exacerbated by their rapid growth rate, a result of genetic manipulation by the industry in order to maximize profit. The filthy conditions inside these farms lead to respiratory distress and infections. These infections as well as other injuries or neurological conditions can prevent ducks from being able to right themselves after they have flipped over on their backs, leading them to be trampled or to slowly die of starvation or dehydration. Ducks can live for 10 or more years, but are routinely killed when they are 7-8 weeks old.

Cows, too, are intelligent, emotional animals. They can quickly learn new tasks, demonstrate logic, and solve problems, and even have “eureka” moments when finishing a puzzle. Cows can also differentiate between humans, and have long-term memories, leading them to react differently to humans who have handled them roughly in the past compared to those who are kind. Studies have also shown that cows have complex emotions, including emotional contagion (when an individual’s emotions spread to the rest of the group), social buffering (when an individual’s stress level decreases in the presence of others), and mother-child bonds.

• Like humans, cows are mammals who produce milk for their babies. Therefore, in order to continuously produce milk, cows are kept in a cycle of pregnancy and have their baby calves taken away from them immediately or shortly after birth. This causes emotional distress to mother cows, who bellow and attempt to search for their young. The female calves will often remain at the farm to enter the dairy industry themselves, while male calves, who will not be able to produce milk, are typically sent to feedlots and slaughtered for beef. Like most animals on factory farms, cows have been genetically manipulated to be more economically productive. In their case, this means producing more and more milk. This, in combination with dirty conditions and industrial milking machines, can lead to mastitis, a painful udder infection that plagues 25% of cows on dairy farms each year. Cows can live to be 15-20 years old, but the toll of repeated pregnancies and life on a factory farm leaves them “spent” and no longer economically productive after about just four years, at which point they are typically sent to a slaughterhouse.

Other animals like turkeys, pigs, lambs, and goats are also farmed in Sonoma County, though to a lesser extent. These animals, like all others, are conscious, sentient, intelligent beings who deserve respect and protection.

Why use the citizen initiated ballot measure process?

The short answer is that legislators have failed us. Members of the Coalition have been advocating for a statewide CAFO moratorium for years. In 2022, our campaign became a real bill in the California Assembly: AB 2764. However, the bill died before getting even a single vote. Many legislators in California receive large campaign contributions from the animal agriculture industry and are incentivized against taking a bold stand to protect animals and our planet. A ballot initiative provides citizens an opportunity to take the power back and directly pass legislation ourselves. In 2018, over 61% of Sonoma County voted in favor of Prop 12, a ballot measure that required groundbreaking expansion to animal welfare laws. We know that Sonoma County residents overwhelmingly care about animals and the environment. If our legislators won’t act, we will.

Has this been done before?

Limiting or prohibiting CAFOs is not a unique idea. Legislation on this issue has been introduced or passed in states as diverse as Utah, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and North Dakota. Federally, Senator Cory Booker has introduced the Farm Systems Reform Act that would place a moratorium on large CAFOs across the country. And just recently, voters in the City of Berkeley collected the requisite number of signatures to qualify a CAFO ban for the November 2024 ballot.

What would happen to the workers?

This ordinance includes a provision that requires the County to provide a retraining and employment assistance program for persons employed at CAFOs. This would ensure that they receive the training needed to work at a legally acceptable agricultural operation, such as plant farming, or in a different job sector. We hope to work with all relevant stakeholders, including labor unions, to ensure this retraining program meets the needs of workers and the community so that, together, we can evolve away from factory farming. Including workers in the transition plan is an important part of a just transition away from relying on factory farms.

What would happen to existing factory farms?

Existing factory farms would be given a 3-year phase-out period to scale down or phase out their operations. While many of us want to see factory farming end immediately, we understand that it takes time. A retraining and employment assistance program will ensure that workers are adequately supported during the transition period.

Why not just regulate factory farms instead of banning them?

Regulations have failed to protect animals, the environment, and public health. The industry receives only minor penalties, if any at all, for polluting the environment or brewing diseases that threaten entire communities. Whistleblowers have documented criminal animal abuse and dangerous, unhygienic conditions in Sonoma County CAFOs on dozens of occasions. They have reported this to authorities, yet no action has been taken, while bodies of government each point a finger at another as ultimately responsible for enforcement. Ultimately, given how many animals are concentrated and confined in each facility, the factory farming industry is not one that can be reformed. Instead, this initiative is a way to begin the transition away from our reliance on factory farms.

Is it possible to feed everyone without factory farms?

The transition won’t be immediate, and it won’t be easy, but it is possible - and necessary - to feed everyone without using factory farms. Much of the grain grown worldwide is used to feed livestock, particularly in factory farming setups. A shift away from using factory farms could free up a significant amount of this land to grow food for human consumption and will also allow truly local farms to once more compete. While the cheapest products may disappear from the market, so will the externalized costs they impose on our community.

Who is behind this initiative?

The Coalition to End Factory Farming is composed of numerous animal advocacy, environmental, and social justice organizations including Compassionate Bay, FACES (Farm Animal Climate and Environmental Stewards) of Sonoma County, and Direct Action Everywhere - SF Bay Area. You can see a full list of supporters on our homepage. If your organization or business would like to be listed as a supporter, please email us at info@endfactoryfarming.vote.

What’s the process for the ordinance? When will this be voted on?

Over 140 volunteers helped collect 37,000+ signatures between September 2023 and March 2024. These signatures were submitted to the county for verification on March 4th. Provided the county deems we collected sufficient valid signatures (19,746), the Board of Supervisors will have the option to directly pass the ordinance themselves. If they choose not to, the ordinance will appear on the November 2024 ballot.

How can I sign the petition?

In order to sign the petition, you must be a registered Sonoma County voter and the signature must be done in person. Email us at info@endfactoryfarming.vote and we’ll let you know where we’ll be so you can sign the petition.

How can I volunteer?

Check out our volunteer page.

How can I contact someone from the campaign?

Email us directly at info@endfactoryfarming.vote.