It’s both a Farm Bill and election year, so voting, polls, and debates are top-of-mind for many in agriculture and the food community. Unfortunately, the same can be said for animal rights activists. They remain focused on the legislative process as a key method to advance their work to end animal agriculture by implementing policies that reduce efficiency and drive up the cost of production, and in turn the price of meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, and seafood.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) recently held its virtual Animal Law Symposium, focused specifically on “state-level farmed animal protection and policy.” Speakers throughout the event stressed a need to improve “farmed animal welfare,” encouraging law professionals and activists to continue the momentum behind initiatives targeting the reduction of "animal suffering" through recent ballot measures and legislative efforts. Proposition 12 in California was a recurring theme, with several citing it as a blueprint to successful efforts and emphasizing the importance to activists of defeating legislation such as the EATS Act that would restrict similar state laws that impact producers in other states from being enacted in the future.

Predictably, state-level ballot initiatives were presented as the key to successfully passing legislation on animal housing and other speakers. “In 2002, Florida voters passed a first of its kind ballot initiative mandating that pregnant pigs simply have enough room to turn around…the Florida initiative was just the beginning. Twenty-two years later, 15 states have used ballot initiatives, legislation and the regulatory process, or a combination of these two to enact laws banning the strict confinement of farmed animals and pushing for further reform,” noted a speaker from ALDF.

The ballot initiative process was described by speakers as “so special” and “so incredible” because it offers an “alternative way to pass a law” when “the legislature isn’t taking action on an issue that the people really care about” that allows them to “go right to the voters,” skipping the traditional legislative process – including state ag committees, which were dismissed as “often geared against [activists].” Speakers noted ballot measures as an opportunity to influence voters from both ends of the political spectrum, noting that they have chosen to “pick issues where we have successfully brought together people who are Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.”

Massachusetts Question 3 was outlined as “very strategic,” as “where there wasn't a great deal of domestic production employing some of these methods,” a ban on sales into the state was added, “so that any producers in Iowa, egg producers or producers that wanted to sell products into Massachusetts had to meet the same requirements, which is in what was then replicated and in a state like California, which is like the fourth largest economy in the world, so it had a much bigger impact.”

Speakers also touched on future efforts using the same methodology, including down to the local level. Campaigns highlighted included “in Denver, a coalition of advocates have secured signatures for validation for a ban on slaughterhouses, and this would specifically affect one business, which is the largest slaughterhouse for lambs in the state…”; “in Sonoma County, a ballot initiative process is underway aiming to prohibit CAFOs, confined animal feeding operations, and this would affect around two dozen CAFOs in the county”; and “in Wisconsin, there was an example where five small towns passed regulations on CAFOs to protect their own environment and their own backyard and their own public safety when the ag industry was threatening to bring the largest pig farm in the state thus far with 26,000 pigs.”

The action item for animal ag is clear: Pay attention to what is happening locally, and not just local to you. Just as Massachusetts Question 3 was used as the model for Proposition 12, any of these local measures could become the blueprint to be replicated in other areas if they were to be successful.

The topic of ballot campaigns and legal and legislative issues is on the docket for later this week at the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s 2024 Stakeholders Summit. If you weren’t able to join us in person, purchase a recording pass (available for purchase May 13 through May 24) so you don’t miss out on valuable insights.

Animal rights activists strategize on legislation

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