Bernier insists it’s a hoax. Sonoma County has between 1.5 million and 2.4 million egg-laying hens and individuals who, in large numbers, would need less than 1 million eggs. The difference, Bernier speculates, is being taken out of the area.
Voting Yes to J, he said, “will mean fewer trucks are being driven to and from Sonoma County, because now those products aren’t being sent to Los Angeles or San Francisco or whatever.”
Straus Family Creamery products – some of which are produced at charitable dairies that can be described as CAFOs – can be found in grocery stores in most major American cities. Clover Sonoma, which may also be affected, ships throughout California, Nevada and parts of Arizona. The differences are less clear for some local dairy and poultry companies.
Secchi, the University of Iowa professor, believes Measure J has the potential to shift the food supply outside of Sonoma County.
“You really can’t control this with supply-side policies,” Secchi said. “You have to have demand-side policies as well. Even if all the people in America said we don’t want CAFOs, if we keep eating a lot of cheese and meat and eggs, they’re going to move to Mexico, or Canada.”
The No on J side presents an even more dramatic impression in its books. Every ranch in Sonoma County that goes out of business, they say, is another piece of undeveloped land that could be picked up by real estate agents for subdivisions or a shopping center.
This idea is supported in a study called “The Value of Conserving Grasslands and Rangelands,” published by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District in 2018.
In that study, the county estimated that “ecosystem services provided by grasslands, including carbon sequestration, water quality and supply, pollination, pest control and residence, totaling $2.4 billion a year.”
To stop the development of farmland, Ag + Open Space used nearly $126 million in local sales tax dollars to purchase conservation easements on 90 local farms totaling 60,000 acres.
Seven of the eight active dairy operations protected by Ag+ Open Space could be affected by Measure J, according to an analysis that Jennifer Kuszmar, the county’s distribution manager, presented to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in May. . Also at risk are five out of six properties that the district is working to protect.
Bernier is also crying foul.
He said the district is looking at urban areas for its housing needs, not the hills of the western district. Dairy land is scarce and reserved for nothing but agriculture, Bernier argued.
Sonoma County: The Right Place?
But is Sonoma County really the place to draw the line?
Brent Newell doesn’t think so.
Newell has spent most of his career fighting dairy products. He is an environmental attorney whose specialty is representing low-income, primarily Latino residents in environmental justice cases against Central Valley industries. And he believes Measure J misses the mark.
“It’s basically the wrong policy in the wrong place,” said Newell, who said he does not work for agricultural companies.
He insists that the right place is the San Joaquin Valley, where he has claimed about 14,000 dairy cows. It is unlikely that any CAFO in Sonoma County has more than 1,500.
Newell described flying over dairies in the Great Valley – large barns housing up to 7,000 dairy cows at a time, as well as free-range dairy barns that pump manure into the many slurry ponds, which are somewhere between solid and liquid.
“There are no cows grazing outside,” Newell said, because the dairy is surrounded by commercial crops. It’s hard to put into words, the size of these farms compared to what we’re used to seeing in Sonoma County when you drive off the back roads.
He argued that the grazed cassettes in the district are the solution, not the problem.
“No one has ever called me from Sonoma County and said, ‘Hey, I hear you’re an attorney with experience with factory farms, I need your help,'” Newell said.
Secchi does not believe that a district-wide initiative is the right way to deal with climate change. But he appreciates the conversation opened by Measure J. Although the professor is not a vegetarian, he is convinced that if America is to have any chance of meeting climate goals and pollution standards, we will eventually need to reduce consumption our meat and milk.
Nov. 5, when voters go to the polls, it may not be that day.
“I would be very happy if Sonoma County had a sister measure that says, for example, in our schools, our hospitals and other public places, we will promote a plant-based diet,” Secchi said. “So that we think about supply, but also demand. Then people would think more about how they choose.
“Otherwise, they have benefits if the measure passes, but there are no consequences. The consequences will be in other parts of California.”
You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.
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