In this context, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines a CAFO as a large-scale industrial animal agriculture facility with a specific number of confined animals varying by species. The initiative aims to prohibit new CAFOs from opening and requires existing ones to either close, transition to another type of farm, or downsize to fall below the CAFO threshold.
Legally, farmers running a CAFO that are subject to inspections and a greater number of federal and state regulations.
“We are not surprised that the ballot initiative qualified, given the lies and misinformation that was touted to collect signatures,” Dayna Ghirardelli, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, told The Press Democrat. “We’ve had several folks tell us that they signed a petition to save Sonoma County farmers, and we’ve had to explain that their signature supported just the opposite.”
Local farmers have insisted that the wording of the initiative is misleading and that none of Sonoma County’s dairies or egg farms are factory farms.
According to the Sonoma County Gazette, Cassi King from Direct Action Everywhere argues that the initiative won’t impact many local farmers. “Even in Sonoma County, there are a thousand animal farms and only about two dozen that are considered CAFOs,” she said.
If passed, Sonoma County would be among the first in the U.S. to enact on a CAFO ban.