Farming tradition vs. animal rights
Why everyone’s having a cow over Measure J
By Janis Mara
K athy Tresch swings open the gate, and a cavalcade of cows—black, white, caramel and beige—trots past, heading for the pasture at Tresch Family Farms in Petaluma. Founded in 1905, owned and run by Tresch and her family, the organic farm’s 750 cows graze on 2,500 acres of gently rolling hills and pastureland. But changes will be in store for the ranch if Measure J, a fiercely debated initiative on the November ballot, passes. The controversial measure would make Sonoma County the first in the nation to outlaw operations the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs, also known pejoratively as factory farms.
NorthBaybiz 21
July 2024
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