By Caleb Hampton
As voters cast their ballots in the coming weeks, farmers in Sonoma County say the future of the region’s dairy and poultry farms is on the line.
Measure J, a ballot initiative in Sonoma County, would within three years cap the number of animals each farm can raise, banning larger farms or forcing them to downsize.
“We would be out of business,” said George Mertens, owner of Mertens Dairy in Sonoma.
He isn’t speculating. The Coalition to End Factory Farming, a group of environmental and animal rights organizations supporting the measure, published a list of 21 “factory farms”—Mertens Dairy among them—that they said would be prohibited under the proposed law.
The measure specifically targets medium and large concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, defined primarily by the number of mature animals farms have. In a report on the potential impacts of the measure, the University of California Cooperative Extension identified 11 such farms in the county.
Whatever the true number, farmers in the region say Measure J, if passed, could have grave consequences on the region’s entire dairy and poultry sectors.
“If some of the larger farms in our community are no longer able to operate, it may lead to a collapse of the entire sector,” said Albert Straus, owner of Petaluma-based Straus Family Creamery, which sources milk from seven dairies in Sonoma County.
Sonoma County’s 42 organic dairies represent more than 40% of California’s organic dairies and produce 13% of the nation’s organic milk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They are supported by a local supply chain of feed stores, farm service companies and creameries such as Straus and Clover Sonoma.
The critical mass of farms generates enough demand for the local feed stores to stay in business and enough milk to supply the creameries. Each link in the chain is essential to the others, farmers say. But within the past three decades, Sonoma County has lost more than half its dairy farms, and recent years have brought major challenges such as the pandemic, bird flu, rising costs and shrinking margins.
“Everybody is on the edge of losing the critical mass of support services,” Straus said. “We’re at a tipping point, and this will take us over that point.”
At risk is a model of dairy production that has gained international acclaim for its dedication to animal welfare, climate action and environmental stewardship.
To maintain their certification under the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program, dairy farmers must implement practices that support biodiversity and comply with animal welfare standards, including putting their cows on pasture for at least 120 days each year. Many of the farms are subject to additional animal welfare criteria imposed by their buyers.
Nearly all the Sonoma County dairies targeted by Measure J as large CAFOs are family-owned, pasture-based farms. While groups supporting Measure J have sought to conflate the term with “factory farms,” CAFO is a designation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used to assess potential water quality risks, with no link to animal welfare or concentration.
“They’re looking at it and just saying, ‘Big is bad,’” said Doug Beretta, owner of Beretta Family Dairy in Santa Rosa and president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.
Beretta said his herd of around 300 dairy cows grazes on 400 acres of irrigated pasture during the summers.
“We’re not factory farms,” he said.
In Sonoma County, dairy farms manage an average of 3.2 acres per mature dairy cow, according to UCCE, and unlike dairies in some regions, their wastewater management is regulated by a regional water quality board.
“Sonoma County is home to some of California’s best agricultural stewards whose farms provide numerous climate and environmental benefits such as storing carbon in soil, limiting energy-intensive urban sprawl, and providing wildlife habitat and open space to recharge groundwater,” Renata Brillinger, executive director of the California Climate and Agriculture Network, said in a statement.
The proposed law says it is needed to protect the environment, public health, farmworkers, animals and small farms of Sonoma County. The measure cites studies that have linked CAFOs with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, toxic waste, climate change, worker injuries and illnesses, and other negative impacts.
“I don’t believe in Band-Aid fixes to a systemic problem,” Kristina Garfinkel, lead organizer for the Coalition to End Factory Farming, said at a Measure J debate held last month in Santa Rosa. “Factory farming is hurting all of us, and it’s time that we eliminate them from our food system.”
The coalition has failed to convince many of the stakeholders it says the measure is intended to benefit. It sought support from the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, or CAFF, and the Sonoma County Democratic Party, Garfinkel said.
“We wanted this to be a collaborative thing,” she said, “but we were ghosted, and we never heard anything.”
Both groups have come out against Measure J, as have advocates for environmental conservation, climate action, sustainable agriculture and disadvantaged populations. Measure J is also officially opposed by the Sonoma County Republican Party, more than a dozen county Farm Bureaus, and groups representing realtors, law enforcement, labor unions, land conservation, food safety and other interests.
“If this measure passes, individuals, restaurants and school cafeterias won’t stop buying poultry and dairy products. And they shouldn’t. These are important parts of many people’s diets,” Wendy Krupnick, president of the Sonoma County chapter of CAFF, said in a statement. “They should have this choice as well as the choice to buy local, quality products from family-owned farms rather than imports from corporations outside Sonoma County.”
The UCCE report, which analyzed the consequences of all animal agriculture being eliminated in Sonoma County, found that Measure J would likely harm Sonoma County’s climate efforts, force it to import products from farther away, raise food costs and cause farmworkers to be displaced from their farm residences and forced out of the county due to a lack of affordable alternatives.
Dairies in the county employ around 300 people and provide free housing and utilities to more than 600 workers and their family members, according to the report.
A report by California State University, Chico, estimated the demise of Sonoma County’s dairy and poultry production would directly result in the loss of $259 million in economic output and 700 jobs. Including indirect and induced impacts, Measure J could cost the region $418 million and more than 1,300 jobs, the report said.
“There is no precedent or science to justify the need for Measure J,” said Dayna Ghirardelli, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.
Farmers in Sonoma County have cautioned that Measure J’s supporters, if successful in their county, could expand their efforts to other parts of California, the nation’s No. 1 milk-producing state.
“If they win here,” Beretta said, “it will go through this state.”
