Earth Equity News

California's Proposition 2 Addresses Humane Treatment of Farm Animals. By Maggie Jones, NYTimesMag, October 26, 2008. "Proposition 2, co-sponsored by the Humane Society and Farm Sanctuary, the biggest farm-animal-rights group in the United States, focuses on what are considered the worst animal-confinement systems in factory farms. The ballot initiative, which voters will decide on Nov. 4, requires that by 2015 farm animals be able to stand up, lie down, turn around and fully extend their limbs. In effect that translates into a ban on the two-foot-wide crates that tightly confine pregnant pigs and calves raised for veal -- a space so small that they can't turn around. And it would eliminate so-called battery cages where four or more hens share a space about the size of a file drawer. Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University and a leading figure in the animal rights movement, compares Proposition 2 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, calling Proposition 2 the 'other historic ballot this November.' If it passes, it would affect more animals -- almost 20 million -- than any ballot measure has in U.S. history. Because California is the largest agriculture state in the country, and often a trend-setter on social issues, the ballot is a bellwether for farm-animal-welfare reform nationwide. Many experts predict that if Proposition 2 becomes law it will create a ripple effect, putting pressure on other states to pass similar reforms and pushing major food corporations to go crate-free and cage-free."