A California Town Will Vote on Banning Factory Farms. What Does That Mean for the Rest of the US?

Activists in Berkeley, which has no factory farms, hope other cities will follow suit – but not everyone is convinced

This year voters in Berkeley, California, will get to choose whether to ban factory farms in its city limits – marking the first time in the US that such a measure has been put on the ballot.

It may seem like an unusual mandate for a city that presently has no factory farms. (There’s a horse race track field that would be shut down if the measure passes.) But the activists behind the ballot initiative say it’s part of a broader strategy to ban this type of industrial style of livestock production in which cattle, chickens and pigs are held in confined spaces before slaughter.

If successful in Berkeley, a liberal San Francisco Bay Area town that’s often been at the forefront of US environmental policy, the method can be replicated elsewhere, they say.

“We can pave the path to abolishing factory farming,” said Cassie King, an organizer with Direct Action Everywhere, one of the groups that pushed for the measure.

There’s some reason to think that what starts as a local ordinance in Berkeley could catch on nationwide. Berkeley was among the first cities to ban the sale of new fur; now it’s a California-wide policy. Berkeley was also among the first cities to impose soda taxes and a ban on gas stoves – both of which sparked contentious national debates on the issues.