Environmental and animal rights groups have gathered the necessary 3,000 signatures to put an ordinance banning factory farms on the 2024 ballot. The measure would ban concentrated animal feeding operations — commonly known as factory farms — in Berkeley. If passed, it would be the first measure of its kind in California.
Curtis Vollmer is the president of the advocacy group Compassionate Bay, one of the groups that has been pushing for the ordinance. He says that banning factory farms would have effects beyond animal wellbeing.
“We’ve seen bird flu rip across the country the past couple of years, and these factory farms where they have hundreds, sometimes thousands of animals crammed into these sheds is the perfect petri dish."
In 2022, activists got a similar factory farm moratorium introduced on the state level. But the bill never made it to a vote. Vollmer and other activists are hoping that the ordinance will inspire other cities in California to pass their own prohibitions.
The news comes as Berkeley’s only operating factory farm — the Golden Gates Fields racetrack — announced its shutdown last month. It will permanently close in October.
