Banning the Sale of Meat From Closely Confined Animals on the Ballot in CA

California Proposition 12, the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, would establish minimum requirements for confining calves raised for veal, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens — and ban the sale of meat and eggs from animals confined in areas below the minimum threshold.

What a YES vote means

Beginning in 2020, the proposal would ban:

• Whole veal meat from a calf confined in an area with less than 43 square feet of usable floor space per cow.
• Whole pork meat from a breeding pig - or the immediate offspring of a breeding pig - that was confined in an area with less than 24 square feet of usable floor space per pig.
• Eggs from an egg-laying bird (chicken, turkey, duck, goose, or guinea fowl) that was confined in an area with less than 1 square foot of usable floor space per hen.

What a NO vote means

• Current minimum space requirements for confining egg-laying fowl, pregnant pigs, and calves raised for veal would continue to apply.

What are both sides saying?

• National Pork Producers Council spokesman Jim Monroe told the L.A. Times last year that his organization “opposes all forms of regulation without representation and this fits the bill.” He continued:

"Livestock production practices should be left to those who are most informed about animal care — farmers — and not animal rights activists. Additionally, changes in housing systems, which come with significant costs that increase food prices, should be driven by consumer purchasing decisions, not the agenda of any activist group."

• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, commonly known as PETA, also opposes Prop. 12, arguing it doesn’t go far enough in addressing problems with living conditions for animals. “We cannot and will not support this initiative because it doesn’t change the fact that hens will suffer far into the future,” said Ben Williamson, senior international media director with PETA.

“There’s no such thing as humane meat,” he said. “It’s all a marketing strategy to offset the growing guilt.”

• “Those who oppose the initiative simply believe consumers will ignore the plight of animals being abused in factory farms,” said Josh Balk, vice president of Farm Animal Production for the Humane Society of the United States, which spearheaded the ballot initiative.

“Because California hens lay 5 billion eggs a year for human consumption, the state has a moral obligation to encourage the most humane conditions possible,” The Mercury News wrote in an editorial endorsing Prop. 12.

What do you think?

Want a similar prop. added to your ballot next year? Should minimum space requirements for animals be a federal issue? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / Somrerk Kosolwitthayanant)