Sonoma County unites to fight ag-focused ballot measure

Key Takeaways

Small farms depend on self-starters to succeed — if families aren’t willing to work at any hour and bring all their creativity to the table, their business probably won’t survive. But as farmers in Sonoma County found out, they aren’t the only self-starters in California. 

Legislative self-starters, wielding the state’s ballot measure process, can potentially force counties to enact and enforce policies that conflict with the rest of their priorities. When word spread in 2023 of an initiative that would have fundamentally changed agricultural operations and Sonoma County’s responsibility relative to that industry, several key players in the community joined quickly to fight it and save the county’s agriculture industry.

“We saw a foundational coalition that came together and said ‘we have to protect agriculture, protect food production,’” Sonoma County Farm Bureau director Dayna Ghirardelli told County Crossroads Symposium attendees Dec. 6.

Measure J, on the November 2024 ballot, would have required the county’s agriculture commissioner’s office to enforce a new, lower threshold for confined animal feeding operations, effectively closing 21 farms and decimating the local food market. It also would have required the commissioner’s office to lead the way to retrain and “re-skill” those farm employees for other jobs in agriculture or other industries, an effort that Agriculture Commissioner Andrew Smith said would have cost more than $1.5 million annually to staff.

“That’s not even something that ag commissioners or departments of agriculture in other states do, that’s something that employment development departments or industrial relations do,” Smith said. “It’s asking our office to enforce something that goes against the reasons our office was promulgated throughout the state, to protect agricultural interests. 

“We’d have to go farm by farm and let them know they’d have to reduce their herds and flocks within three years.”

But there were immediate threats that didn’t wait until Election Day 2024. Starting back in 2017, protestors trespassed on Sunrise Farms, disregarding owner Mark Weber’s requests to avoid bio-secure poultry areas of the 112-year-old farm. They came at night, breaking into buildings, according to Weber, and once swarming the farm with hundreds of protestors.

“We were calling 911, but at the same time, they instructed their people to flood 911 with calls about a mass animal welfare incident, shutting down the 911 system,” Weber said. “They weren’t violent, but there’s no way to defend against 400 people at once.”

Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt characterized the protestors and sponsors of the initiative as non-county residents, whose motives targeted the existence, not the execution, of agricultural practices. 

“It’s not about animal welfare per se, it’s about humans consuming animal products,” he said. Quoting an associate, he said, “Sonoma is the way we should be farming, not the way you should try to prohibit.” 

Rabbitt added that California’s initiative process, beyond a cursory title check, leaves open a lot of room for error.

“You can write it as well or as bad as you want, and it creates problems when things do get passed,” he said. “This initiative was called “Stop factory farming,” but by their definition, we’re sitting in a factory farm right now.”

When he said that, Rabbit was sitting on stage in a barn wedding venue on a small dairy farm.

“The devil is in the details.”

Ghirardelli and the farm bureau quickly organized stakeholders, not just from dairy and poultry farms that would be affected, but coordinating with healthcare and business communities, along with the environmental community, which, on its face, would seem an unlikely ally.

“They recognized it as overreach,” she said.  “We all wanted the same things, so we figured out that we’re not at odds.”

The response included farmers taking to social media to share their stories of how the initiative would affect their operations, helping put faces on a nebulous issue.

“It’s so important that we are continuously telling the story and connecting food production to the consumers and our neighbors,” Ghirardelli said. 

Weber said that though he and his fellow farmers were loath to be the center of attention, they pushed beyond their comfort zones.

“If we failed, it’s all over,” he said.

Ghirardelli said that county supervisors understood the threat to the local economy and were receptive. 

“Your role is to help people see that as fast as possible when they’re facing something like that,” she said. “Whether it’s an outsider group or whether it’s a real emergency that’s totally unlike this but where you need mobilization and you need to get your community to be resilient.”  

Smith emphasized that county officials would be bound by the outcome, so their opportunities for action lasted until Election Day.

“You strive to educate your fellow elected officials on what contemporary agriculture in your area looks, sounds and smells like,” he said. “It’s going to be really important to understanding legislative and policy development when groups bring legislation to you and tell you why they need something for you to vote on.

“It’s really problematic when it’s something idealistic rather than based in science.” 

The 85% defeat of Measure J provided only temporary relief, shaking local farmers out of complacency.  

“The real work begins now,” Ghirardelli said. “We have to take our learnings from that campaign, from all different aspects — legislative, their tactics and understanding how they’re going to approach this, and recognize why people voted against this and continue to connect with them and all them to connect with agriculture. This was born out of our need to connect with our voters.”

Those efforts include continuing Farm Fest, a summertime event that offered chances to meet local farmers and learn about agriculture. 

“It’s so important that we are continuously telling the story and connecting food production to the consumers and our neighbors,” Ghirardelli said. 

Weber emphasized the need for greater education to help residents understand the agricultural ecosystem and economy.

“People are further from their food system as they’ve ever been,” he said.