UnchainedTV: Will Huge Animal Factories Be Banned?

0:00 And we have breaking news to tell you about today. It is making headlines all across the nation. These are the experts who will be talking about it. You could call it the showdown in Sonoma. There are just some of the headlines and wow, it will be a showdown. An historic ballot measure is coming up after more than 37,000 signatures were collected in this rural northern California county to ban large CAFOs, concentrated animal feeding operations. The coalition to end factory farming has handed in the votes and now it is up to the voters to decide.

0:42 So let's go straight out to Samantha Fay. You are one of the leaders of this. First of all, 37,000 signatures. Wow, that's a lot to collect. Tell us how you did it and what is this ballot measure for those who have no idea? This ballot measure is to ban CAFOs in Sonoma County. So there are about two dozen CAFOs in Sonoma County and we plan to phase them out through this ballot measure. The only way that we got all of these signatures, the 37,000 signatures, is simply through the power of volunteers. A lot of other measures and political organisations will hire people to collect signatures, but every single one of our 150 volunteers was unpaid and came of their own accord to Sonoma County and from Sonoma County to collect these signatures.

1:36 Now, you have done a lot of social media promotion on this. Let's take a look at one of your promos and then we'll dissect it. Maybe not a good choice of words. Again, this is the showdown in Sonoma, an historic ballot measure. We are getting ready to ban factory farms in Sonoma County. Despite the local Farm Bureau spreading misinformation to turn the public against this effort, we are turning in over 37,000 signatures from Sonoma County residents to get this factory farm ban on the ballot. If this historic initiative succeeds, it would stop the exploitation and abuse for hundreds of thousands of animals and have potentially national implications.

2:19 So let's do this. So Cassie King, you are the lead communications person for Direct Action Everywhere. A lot of the Farm Bureau spokespeople are saying this is going to put a lot of people out of work. What is your response to that? Thanks so much for having us on, Jane. We are DXCS of Bay Area is one of the founding members of the Coalition to End Factory Farming, which is the ballot committee leading this initiative, just for some context. And like Samantha said, there are an estimated two dozen CAFOs in Sonoma County, and that is an overestimation because we want to be transparent and we want to give an understanding of the maximum impact that this initiative could have.

3:04 So it's possibly closer to 20 or so facilities that actually meet the EPA's definition of a CAFO. And while these are the facilities that have the most animals, because that's what makes them a CAFO, is the number of animals that they have, the large CAFO category specifically, which is what we see in Sonoma County, is purely based on the number of animals. You might think that they have the most employees as well, but actually factory farming is quite mechanised. The feed comes in, the water comes in automated. The manure is falling through cages or falling through wire floors and going out of these chicken and duck facilities. So even though there are far more animals confined inside CAFOs in Sonoma County than the small animal farms that exist there, they actually have far fewer workers.

3:54 And also Sonoma County, the vast majority of workers in agriculture are actually working in vineyards. Sonoma County is quite well known for grapes, for wine and the wine production there. And that's not impacted at all because we're specifically looking at animal operations, concentrated animal feeding operations. And by the way, we're happy to have anybody on from the other side. We would love to sponsor a debate here on Unchained TV. So consider it an invitation. We've got some callers lining up. Paige in Los Angeles, your question and thought for our team under the banner Coalition to Ban Factory Farming. Thank you for taking my call.

4:35 Here's what I'm curious about. In your outreach, what were some of the responses from the citizens in the area in regards to knowing that animals were in these factory farms that were their burgers and their hot dogs and so forth? What was the response you were getting and how did they get a connection to sign that paper? Well, it's an excellent question, Sarah. You're from the area. When signatures were being collected, what was the response amongst the people? Because those opposing say, well, it's going to be bad for the county.

5:15 But you got 37,000, more than 37 ,000 people who live in that county, as I believe you do, to sign. So what were their reasons for signing? What do you think the mood of the county is? Well, thanks for the great question. Yeah. In my experience with voters, one of the first things that I noted is that folks weren't really even aware that we had factory farms here in Sonoma County. And I think that was the same thing was true for myself even just three years ago. So people are shocked because most people have this kind of idea of what a factory farm is. They picture something in their mind. And they definitely don't associate that with Sonoma County because we have so many, you know, fields and lovely scenes around here, rolling fields of green and you see cows dotting the fields.

6:07 And it's kind of a shock. So first people are in a Yeah, I do remember seeing some of those, those buildings, those long buildings, you know, where how the animals are, and then it all starts to click. And there's this moment that I witnessed and so many people when it clicked, and they're like, Oh, my gosh, yes, that is what's happening here. I can't stand factory farms. I've heard that so many times. I hate factory farms. I can't stand factory farms. They're awful. Yes, I support this. So that was kind of a general theme is just, you know, when people realise what it is you're talking about.

6:48 They are on board because they care about animal welfare and our environment here. So the stereotypical description of people who support this by the opponents is you're extremists, but 37,000 people living in your county can't be extremists. What you're saying is that when they start thinking about what this really is, these giant concentrated animal feeding operations that house collectively, there's two dozen of them approximately about what I believe you'd say 9 million animals in a dozen farms.

7:28 Is that correct, Samantha? Um, actually, Cassie would be able to answer that question a little bit better than I would. Go ahead. Sure. So like I said, the estimation is around two dozen, but we are overestimating. So it's possible that some of those facilities are are have downsized since the most recent report to the USDA or the water boards. But yes, about 2.9 million animals across just two dozen facilities, which is far more than, you know, the next 50 farms below them have because they're just such outliers with the number of animals that are confined. So yeah, 2.9 million animals, including chickens, ducks and cows across just about two dozen facilities.

8:13 And in some of the articles I read, there were small farmers who were in favour of this saying that the big CAFOs are pushing them out of business. We've got so many callers lined up. Let's hit them now. Michael in Los Angeles, your question or thought for our panel. Oh, hi. First of all, I want to thank everyone, all the volunteers that got the signatures because I know how hard that is to get people to sign things. So I was wondering, what do you guys think about the general mood of the like the local politicians that represent your area? Do you think that they'll be responsive to this, you know, this proposition and you'd be able to get maybe endorsements for it? Thank you.

8:54 Samantha, what are your thoughts? Yeah, absolutely. I think that personally and privately, there is probably a majority of local politicians and elected officials that do, in fact, agree with this measure. Unfortunately, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau does have a lot of sway within the local governmental system. But I think that the Farm Bureau's extremist reaction to our measure is absolutely driving a wedge between them and the local politicians. We're really looking forward to getting endorsements. And we have been privately thanked and congratulated by specific elected officials within Sonoma County.

9:35 But once we start to address a little bit more of the Farm Bureau's concerns, and we're very excited to have some events like that coming up. Once we address the Farm Bureau's concerns, I absolutely believe that more elected officials will come out in support of this ballot measure due to the almost outright falsehoods that the Farm Bureau has been spreading. And if I can add one update to that. Yeah, because just yesterday, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors had this on their agenda for their meeting, because that's the process that the signatures are verified by the registrar of voters. And then they head to the Board of Supervisors to decide either about enacting it immediately, which would be great. It would save a lot of time for everybody and the cost of the election.

10:16 But they're not going to be doing that. It is controversial, and they're going to put it to a vote. But they also have the option of commissioning a study from county agencies on the impact of this initiative, which they have decided to do. That's what they decided at their meeting yesterday, which you might think that that's not great news. But I'm actually hopeful that that will be helpful, because there's a lot of confusion with the misinformation the Farm Bureau is spreading about how many facilities there are in Sonoma County that meet the definition of a CAFO and what exactly, you know, all the great questions about how many animals this will impact, how many workers this will impact. And I think the information is important for people to know and will ultimately be helpful. I mean, there's a lot of great conversations to be had.

10:59 There's also an important part in the CAFO initiative text about funding the transition for workers. And that should be mentioned in this study. And there should be more transparency around what this will actually look like if it passes. So we'll keep people posted. This study is not going to preempt it being on the ballot, though. No, definitely not. It's still going to be on the ballot. Okay, that's important. And I think it's very important to find out exactly how many workers would be affected. Because you're saying that, hey, they have these hundreds of thousands of animals, collectively, approximately two dozen or less concentrated animal feeding operations with almost 3 million animals. How many people are watching them?

11:41 If it turns out that it's not very many, that says a lot in itself. I've got two dogs and a cat, and it's a full time job. Can you imagine hundreds of thousands of animals? And that is one of the major reasons why critics say these animals start suffering if they can't reach the water, if they break a limb, if they're on their backs, they can't turn around. Because who's there to pick them up? Who's there to give them the water? These are important questions that need to be decided. We've got more callers lined up, Nilo Farr in Dallas, Texas. Your question or thought for our panel. Hi, you needed 30,000 or 6% signatures of registered voters in Sonoma County, assuming a population of half a million.

12:27 However, you got 7%, 37,000, which is huge. Was the support primarily from urban centres or rural areas? Yeah, tell us about the people who signed, Samantha. What were your observations? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for your question. We were definitely based in more urban centres, but as a resident of Sonoma County, I can tell you that the definition of urban centre is not necessarily what people would be thinking. We posted up mainly at grocery stores and other places that there would be community gatherings. And it was the places that there were small community gatherings outside of the metropolitan area of Santa Rosa and Petaluma that were actually super supportive.

13:15 People in the rural areas wanted to have a conversation with us. People in the rural areas wanted to find out more about us as an individual, as opposed to an organisation. And so there was a lot of support from the people in the population centres. They would come up and ask just a few questions about the measure and things like that. But the people in the more rural areas were definitely more interested in developing a relationship and staying in touch with us. Oh, wow. Okay. I will say, just looking at some of the comments, it made me realise that just having these conversations with 37,000 people is a tremendous victory in itself.

13:57 As I believe you mentioned, Sarah, a lot of these people weren't even aware that there were factory farms in the area. They're not like right out on the corner. And you yourself said you were not aware. Tell us about your personal evolution, Sarah, as somebody who lives there, who said just a few years ago, you had no idea any of this was going on. Yeah. So it's kind of a funny story. I was actually a little bit hypervigilant about wildfires back in the years that we were having back-to-back wildfires from about 2017 to 2020. And I saw a plume of smoke on the horizon. So I went on a wildfire camera to try to figure out where it is.

14:37 And somehow, looking at the satellite view, I noticed it was across the field from something called a Riker, oh, sorry, a duck farm. So I don't want to name any names, but I just did. I apologise. But I wondered what it was. And so I started looking it up and I thought, well, hmm, that looks like something kind of unusual. It was a lot of long, thin buildings that I could see from the satellite view, but I didn't see any animals outside. So I thought that kind of looks like what in my mind, I thought a factory farm would look like. And so I started searching online for that. And in the process, what I found were the videos you're actually broadcasting right now. And I just want to say these videos are courtesy of Direct Action Everywhere.

15:22 There is a legal case that is a backstory to this as well, which we'll get to in a second. But these are some of the undercover videos that were taken by Direct Action Everywhere, which correct me if I'm wrong, Cassie, were handed in to the Sonoma County prosecutor demanding prosecution. And there was a refusal to prosecute what this video shows as evidence of animal cruelty. Go ahead. And by the way, I will say we invite anybody from any factory farm, anybody who wants to talk about this in Sonoma County, you are invited on Shane TV, we'd love to dialogue with you.

16:07 Continue on. Sarah. Yeah, so in my search, I found those videos. And then I found DxE. And I was just really, really intrigued. And that sort of began my journey on animal rights activism. I'd had an experience back in the early 90s, where I had found a duck that was tangled in fishing wire at Stinson Beach in here in Northern California. And I couldn't help the duck. And I didn't know about animal rescue and things like that. Then I really just had no clue what to do. And it haunted me all these years that I couldn't help this poor duck that was clearly dying. And I'm sure it did perish.

16:49 Its beak was ripped off. And anyway, so it was just one of those moments where you have a pivotal moment in your life. And the path became clear. And so I started getting more involved. And now I'm the co-founder of a local organisation called FACES of Sonoma County. And that stands for Farm, Animal, Climate, and Environmental Stewards. And we're basically trying to raise awareness about the impacts of factory farming on the animals, the environment, and the climate. That's our main thing. And also public health and safety. We have a lot of issues going on around that.

17:31 And worker safety. But one of our main focusses right now is supporting this ballot measure as a founding partner of the coalition. So when opponents of this measure say, oh, it's a bunch of extremists, and you're one of the leaders, would you consider yourself an extremist? I am extremely compassionate. I love that. Okay. Yeah. All right. I want to get to a comment that was made on social media here. And I'm going to look for it right now. I'm going to hit Cassie with this one. Is DXC promoting reduce and buy local humane free range instead?

18:13 What would they say when people ask, where should we buy from? I'll just let you take that one, Cassie. Yeah, thanks, Leah. That's a great question. It's really interesting to be working with so many different groups in the coalition, because we all are coming to this point of wanting to oppose CAFOs for various different reasons. There are environmental law firms and labour rights groups and local businesses in Sonoma County, restaurants and small animal producers who are signed on to the coalition to end factory farming. So we certainly don't all agree on what exactly the vision is of 10 years from now, 20 years from now in Sonoma County, in California and the world.

18:56 But we do all agree. And I think that shows that this isn't an extreme ask. It's something most people agree with when they are given the facts on stopping large CAFOs, on stopping these facilities that disproportionately harm our environment, pollute the water and the air, harm animals, harm workers, and pose a huge risk to public health. So we're really focussing on those facts, on those statistics and examples within the county right now, because that's something we all agree on. I think if you were to reach out to different members of the coalition, you'd get some different answers on what they would suggest we replace those facilities with. But honestly, there are small animal producers on the coalition because they think that they're doing it better and they want the opportunity to compete.

19:43 And right now they really struggle to compete when there are a few small players that dominate the industry. We've got, sorry to cover you down there, but we've got this, Curtis Anthony. The fact that there is this much controversy and press on the measure already is a win in and of itself. This is said to be the single most politically charged ballot measure in the history of the county and has the opportunity to draw national attention, time to knock on doors and hit the phones. Let's get after it. Your thoughts on that comment by Curtis Anthony, Samantha Faye. Thank you, Curtis, for your comment. I absolutely agree with you. The amount of press and the amount of attention that this ballot measure has gained clearly shows that the opposition is afraid of the impact of this ballot measure, even while not understanding, truly not understanding the impact of this ballot measure.

20:34 And I completely echo your sentiments that it's time to get on the phones. It's time to knock doors. It's time to join community events and really get the word out about this ballot measure because there has been so much controversy that is led entirely by falsehoods from the Farm Bureau. So follow up, what is your promotion plan to get voters on board with this? What kind of campaign are you planning? And I think that goes back to Samantha, right? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. We have a very traditional campaign that's being run right now. We're really looking into getting door knockers.

21:15 We're looking into getting yard signs and all of these other things. But we also are running an untraditional campaign in the way that we're reaching out individually on a one-to-one level with organisations that actually would, in another world, be opposed to our ballot measure. Like Cassie was saying, and like Sarah was saying, we have small animal farmers on our coalition with us, which I think is honestly really incredible. When we're trying to pass legislation about banning fracking and stuff, we don't get other oil companies to sign on to these ballot measures, or yeah, to sign on to these measures. So I think that it's traditional in some ways and untraditional in others. Yeah.

21:56 And we've got Leah saying, that's a disappointing answer. Small animal farmers are better. No, they're not. What I will say to that is everything in life is a process. Few big changes are events. And a process is a whole bunch of steps. And so it's sometimes magical thinking to think that everything is just going to change like that at once. And also, just speaking in general for the movement of Compassionate Animals, we don't want to be an exclusive club. We want to get as many people in and give them the opportunity to evolve on this subject.

22:38 That's just my personal opinion. But I want to talk a little bit about the backstory that certainly this is breaking news, it's making headlines. CBS News, a lot of other major publications are talking about the measure seeking to limit the size of Sonoma County livestock and poultry farms qualifying for the ballot to be decided by the voters in November. There was a trial in this same county and the co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere, the leader in the Open Rescue Movement, Wayne Chung, was prosecuted and convicted.

23:23 And I just want to play a little clip of him talking about just some aspects of the case. He was gagged, but he did speak into a camera sometimes in the back of a car to try to get his position out during the trial. Hundreds of activists walked into factory farms and slaughterhouses, gave aid to animals, even locked their necks in the slaughter line to prevent animals from drowning in scalded water. But I personally did not touch a single animal. I personally did not touch a single part of the slaughterhouse machinery. Instead, I'm being charged for conspiring with others who allegedly did. But all the prosecution's evidence involves speech. They've asked questions of our witnesses, such as, are you vegan?

24:05 Are you Wayne Chung's friend? Have you organised vigils for Wayne Chung? But all those things are crimes. There are multiple cases in California recently, including a case called People vs. Berziceana and another case called People vs. Aware. Only that you do not know that what you're doing is a crime. So, for example, if you're live streaming and engaging in first amendment activity, and if your involvement in a crime is just cheerleading, for example, giving a speech or a multi-individual, you can't be liable for a felony conspiracy. So we'll be testing in court tomorrow. It's not just animal rights, a free speech. All right, but he was convicted. So let's put this ballot measure in the context of what's been happening in Sonoma County.

24:45 He was convicted. He served a very short time. He was then released. Happy to say that Unchained TV covered all of it. We were the only news organisation to be live from the beginning to the end of the trial and his release after serving time. So Cassie, as a lead communications for Direct Action Everywhere, put this into perspective. There is a lot happening in the animal rights movement in Sonoma County. There are a lot of groups. There are a lot of strategies. This is part of it. And I will say the first thing that Wayne did after he was released from spending several weeks in jail was go out and collect signatures to get this factory farm ban on the ballot.

25:32 So, you know, we can be members of different groups and support in different ways. And while Wayne participates in Open Rescue, he can also collect signatures. And I've helped collect some of these signatures myself and definitely had on some occasions, people ask, you know, is this related to the trial that just happened? And I could talk to people and say, well, in some ways it's related because that, you know, those people, including myself, who was originally in the case and they dismissed my charges at the last minute on the first day of trial, you know, we're facing prosecution for bringing public attention to what's happening in these CAFOs, like the facilities that were involved in this trial, which again, you're playing footage from one of them.

26:16 This footage wouldn't have even made its way to people like Sarah and Sam if Direct Action Everywhere investigators hadn't released it. So it's part of the puzzle of what's happening. And it's one important part is getting the investigatory footage out there and the stories of rescued animals. And I'm hopeful that that part of what's unfolding in Sonoma can assist the ballot measure. I think it can certainly go both ways if people want to call it extreme or radical. But I also think that when they see this footage and when they recognise what's happening behind the closed doors of these facilities that they might not even realise exist in their county, that they're going to think that what's happening to animals is pretty extreme as well.

26:58 And, you know, I just want to do the timeline so that people understand who are watching. There was these undercover investigations. There are laws in California, anti-cruelty laws, and Direct Action Everywhere maintains that they're being violated because, well, the condition of some of these animals speaks for itself. And they took the video, they went in, undercover investigation, took video, and then took the video to prosecutors and said, prosecute this. And the prosecutors in this county refused to prosecute. Then after that, and correct me if I'm wrong, if I have the timeline wrong, there was something called a mass open rescue at several of these facilities.

27:44 And I'm going to show you some video. Large numbers of activists go to a facility. They're holding flowers. They're singing songs. Some of them are chaining themselves to the front. Some of them are going in and taking out a select number of injured animals, animals that appear in distress. But look at the turnout by law enforcement. Now, I'm personally just speaking as a California taxpayer. Just where I live, we had somebody shooting off a whole bunch of gunfire a couple of nights ago, terrifying the whole community. And I was scared to walk my dogs.

28:24 I would love to see this kind of police presence protecting me and protecting other taxpayers from violent crime that is going on in the community. But look at this turnout of law enforcement. I mean, that is a huge turnout. So this is some of the backstory of what's happening in Sonoma County. And I want to ask Samantha Faye, why Sonoma County? Is it because it's a very agricultural county in California? It might be called... Remember, California arguably is either one of or the most important state of the union.

29:04 It's about to become... It's already the fifth largest economy in the nation. It's about to become the fourth largest economy in the nation. So what happens here in California is super, super important to what's going to happen in the rest of the United States and the world. Absolutely. So just a little bit more backstory. I was there at that mass open rescue that you just broadcast. And even more so than the police, the police on the ground on foot that you can see, there was four different municipality helicopters. So Sonoma County has a sheriff's helicopter. Marin has a sheriff's helicopter. And there was even helicopters that came in from Napa and from San Francisco County.

29:49 So even though it's extreme, the amount of police presence that's on the ground, there were even more that you can't even see in that shot. And then up on one side of the street and down on the other side of the street, they had paddy waggons that were also full of police officers. So it was really important to me as a Sonoma County resident and an animal rights activist that we do this in Sonoma because... And I know that we've had a little bit of discussion just on air right now about small animal farmers. But it was really important to me because these large CAFOs are actually riding on the reputation that small animal farmers feel as though they've built for Sonoma County. So people in Sonoma County, the consumers absolutely believe that they're purchasing from these small animal producers when they are in fact not.

30:36 They almost never are because these small animal producers don't even have the ability to sell their animal products in stores. But the large CAFOs and all of these things that people assume only exist in places like Livingston, California and Modesto absolutely exist in Sonoma County. And so we chose Sonoma County specifically because I wanted it. But we also chose Sonoma County specifically because of the surprise in which people receive this information. Everybody knows about the animal facilities that are in Central California.

31:17 Everybody drives by Harris Ranch and all of those things and they think that they're terrible. And of course they want to do something about it. Let's leave the names of various ranches out. We invite anybody mentioned on at any time. Sorry about that. But the animal facilities that you drive through in Southern California, people want to stop those. People want to see that phased out. But what they don't see is that when you have like at the Mass Open Rescue that you just broadcast, you can see that all the grass is green around the facility. And so people legitimately think that when they see green grass, that there's no way it can be a concentrated animal feeding operation.

31:57 And so therefore, I think it's even more sinister in Sonoma County that these facilities exist on the same level as they do in Central California, but they're hiding behind basically just the weather that we have here. So fascinating. So again, we're going to go to a caller, Tiffany in Los Angeles, your question or thought for our panel. Hi, Jane, thank you for taking my call. And I want to give a shout out to Unchained TV. This is how I learned about DxD. And I was actually able to go to the right to rescue trial for Wayne. And I got to see all three, Casey, Samantha, and Sarah in action getting the ballot, getting signatures and working so hard to get this on the ballot.

32:47 So congratulations. And I wanted to know what we can do if we don't live in the area to support this to help get it passed. And also if you're planning any big rallies or something we could put on the calendar to come up for. So thank you. Thank you all. Hi, Tiffany. So that's amazing to hear. This is how you learned about what's going on in Sonoma County and that you made the trip up for the trial. And since you're not that far to somebody who is out of the county, but able to travel in a day's drive up there, I definitely would say keep an eye out for some of big events that are coming up. I believe the coalition's planning a launch party for Saturday, May 11th, and I'm sure that there will be other events.

33:30 I think it would be great to do a town hall or some kind of public debate, have different coalition members speak, have the Farm Bureau speak if they're willing to. And yeah, just get the word out with more events. But also there will be door knocking and phone banking and phone banking, obviously, because it's done with phone can be done from outside of the county. So stay tuned for information about that, because that's the way that you could help from your own home. Tom says that we're more security at the chicken factory than the Capitol on January 6th. I don't know if that's true, but we get the point. What is the URL for people to go to if they want to get involved in this and learn exactly what's happening and when the events are?

34:15 Great question. It's EndFactoryFarming.vote. EndFactoryFarming.vote is the website for the Coalition to End Factory Farming, which is the ballot committee behind the whole campaign. And you can actually see a lot of useful information on there, including you can find the link to the text of the initiative. You can find the supporters who are listed on there and click through and check out their websites. You can volunteer or just subscribe to the email list to stay up to date. So I just want to go over sort of the mechanics of all this because ballot measures are complicated. So Samantha, there's a lot of nuances on how this is going to unfold, what the actual wording will say, how do people vote, yay or nay?

35:02 Tell us about it because, you know, I always vote, but I vote at home and it's complicated. Then I have like a little packet that someone sends me and I read, is this yay or nay? Are you going to be in those packets? And if so, who's sending them out? What are the deets? Yeah, absolutely. We fully plan on having a voter guide and being in other organisations' voter guides as well. Our coalition partners will be emailing their email lists on getting people out, getting people to vote. We don't have the text that is actually going on the ballot right now. There was a while ago like Prop 6, I believe, that had their ballot measure information worded really poorly within the ballot measure in order to trick people to voting yes or voting no on a specific issue.

35:59 So we're looking forward to having extremely clear and transparent language in the ballot. And we're looking forward to having extremely clear and transparent language in our voter guides as well. And thank you for always voting. I also always vote as well. It's very important. All right. We've got another caller, Christina in Los Angeles. Your question or thought? Hi, everyone. You're all so intelligent and articulate. It's really a joy to listen and watch you all, first of all. So my, I guess, question or comment is, would it be contemplated to also add to this movement?

36:40 The ballot measure, sure, would talk about factory farms and so forth. But to add to the whole bigger picture of instead of factory farms, and I'm sure people and companies are in fear of losing profits and jobs, is to say, listen, we've got companies coming in lined up. They would love to open up produce and fruit organic farms that would increase in profits for everyone and create jobs. And so sort of coupling those two ideas together. It's not just a loss to their county when folks are concerned about the economy, but it's a plus when you can substitute it with growing and thriving industries.

37:25 Wow. Excellent. Who wants to take that? Samantha, you're nodding your head. Isn't there something in your proposal that says that there has to be sort of a whole system for getting anybody who's lost their job as a result of the closure of these two dozen facilities to get other jobs? Absolutely. So there is a provision in the measure that states that there is already federal funding for farm workers to transition into other agricultural jobs. And I know that there is actually a dairy farm in Humboldt County where my husband's family is from that was successfully transitioned into a quinoa farm.

38:09 And so they were even able to keep the same exact irrigation facilities that they had. They were able to completely redesign the creamery and the milking parlour basically into somewhere that plant protein is being processed now. And it is an extremely successful business venture. They sell actually to Lundberg, one of my favourite brands. So when you're buying that brand, you can also be supporting the transition of farm workers. It's so amazing how many people are involved in this. You know, I've collected signatures over the years. I went out and collected signatures for Prop 2 many years ago that went into effect in 2015, I believe.

38:52 That was an anti-cruelty measure. I also collected signatures for Prop 12. It's hard. I stood outside the farmer's market. People brush by you, you know, later. And so how many people do you have involved in all of this? And how do you coordinate all this? Who wants to take that? I can start. I probably won't give all of the information, but I don't know all the information. But there were roughly 150 volunteers that all worked hard to collect the signatures. And so that's a huge part of it, right?

39:32 You have to have the numbers. I guess, well, I think that's about as much as I want to say. All right. Well, Sarah, take it away. Yeah. So we have about 150 volunteers, like Sarah said. We really appreciate them. And I hope that some of them are watching right now. Thank you so much for everything that you've done for the campaign. Moving forward, we really want people to get their friends involved. So that's kind of how our organisation is sort of, and I know it's a charged term, trickle down, basically, that we have people who are really super passionate about the measure and about factory farming.

40:14 And they'll go out and they'll get two or three friends to come with them to Signature Gather. And it's very low pressure. I know that a lot of people are really afraid of it. I personally really dislike being brushed past, and I wish that people would say, no, thank you. But it can be very emotionally draining work. And so we're so, so, so thankful to all of the volunteers that have helped us and to all of the volunteers who have brought even more volunteers in. I just have one funny anecdote. I remember many years ago, I was collecting outside the farmer's market and there was my yoga teacher brush past me and was like, later. And I was like, wait a second, you're not being the same person you are on that yoga mat.

40:59 It was a hilarious moment. Well, so Cassie, how does the after it's on the ballot effort differ from getting it on the ballot? Those are two totally different things. Right. It's a lot more. I think the campaign needs to increase 10x because we need to knock on so many doors. We didn't need every we didn't need a majority of voters in Sonoma County to sign the petition to get this on the ballot. We needed a small percentage of the number of people who had voted in a recent election. And we exceeded that, which is great. But in this case, what we'll need for this measure to pass is a majority is over 50 percent of people who vote on it to vote in support of it.

41:48 And that means we need to get the word out to a much larger pool of people. And we also, at the same time, have more to explain, because it's pretty simple to let people know the very basic what this is and the timeline for it and that we need them to sign to get it on the ballot. But now we're getting to convincing people to vote for it. And some people, they're already convinced. You definitely run into people who are like, thank you for doing this. And how do I get involved? Which is great, because they're already excited to volunteer. Like Sam said, people have jumped into the campaign just from signing and now they're volunteers. But there's also people who have a lot of questions, understandably, because if you don't even know what a CAFO is or what exactly a factory farm is, then you probably don't know all these other facts about the ways that they're harming our community, the impacts that they have on air quality and water quality and workers and just how hidden they are and what's happening to animals.

42:49 So there's a lot of questions that people have, and it will take more time to have these conversations than the conversations getting people to sign. So, yeah, we need more help if people want to come up and volunteer. If anybody watching is in Sonoma County, we would love to have you sign up at nfactoryfarming.vote and become a volunteer. All right, we got a caller. Annie in Sherman Oaks, your question or thought? Hi, yes, thank you, Jane, for taking my call. Thank you all for all you do. I love you all, Kate, Cassie, Sarah, Wayne, every single one of you are incredible heroes, really. I want to know, what is the specific lines that you could give, and is there a way we can make flyers, something that everyone can use, even those of us if we cannot make it to Sonoma County, to expand and, you know, your message so that it reaches out bigger population?

43:47 Good point. Good question, Samantha. What can people do who are not in Sonoma County? Yeah, so thank you for your question. There is a lot of going to be a lot of phone banking available. If you can't make it up to Sonoma County at all, that's definitely one of the ways that you can participate remotely. I highly recommend going out and seeing if you do already support businesses that operate in Sonoma County. I know that Sherman Oaks is a little far away, but I'm down in Southern California a lot, and I go to a lot of the vegan restaurants that are down there. And so if you've been to a vegan restaurant in Sonoma County, I recommend emailing them very nicely and saying, thank you for providing plant-based options in Sonoma County, and I hope that you will look forward to voting yes on this measure.

44:38 Also, additionally, there is going to be a lot of materials that are coming out. Just within the next couple of weeks, we are printing out a bunch of leaflets. Most of our literature is going to be printed. And so if you have the ability to get a hold of some of that literature from us, you can find our email at our website at nfactoryfarming.vote. Go ahead and get your hands on some of that literature and bring it to your favourite vegan restaurants and all of the restaurants that offer plant -based options, because those are the places where our community really is being built. Community is built over food.

45:19 So when we have that literature out, please go ahead, bring that around. And you know what? Your individual influence might bring this measure to your town as well. Can I jump in? Oh, we have to talk about that. Yes. Go ahead, Sarah. Oh, thanks. So I just wanted to add to that a couple of things, and I do want to rewind for a second also, but we do have a couple of upcoming events for folks that are here in Sonoma County or that might be visiting Sonoma County for Earth Day weekend. FACES, the organisation that I represent, one of the coalition partners, is going to be having a booth at the Santa Rosa Earth Day Festival. And one of the main things we're going to be doing there is to be campaigning for the ballot measure. So we will have lots of literature and materials.

46:02 We will have leaflets. I just saw that comment. So that's one of the things I really wanted to emphasise is the leaflets that are probably being printed as I speak, or one day this week anyway, very soon. So we will have those, and hopefully those will be made available for folks online who are not local, something that you, you know, are local, so that you can have that and download it and pass those out to your friends, family, other folks, or restaurants. But the one thing that I wanted to, oh, and then the second event is Healdsburg Climate Action Festival. We will be, the campaign to end factory farming will actually be at the Healdsburg Climate Festival on Sunday.

46:43 Did I say the date? So Earth Day Santa Rosa is this Saturday, April 20th. Then the Climate Fest in Healdsburg is Sunday, April 21st. So we'll be at both of those events. Yeah. And let me just say, because this is going to be on, you know, as an evergreen, there are those kinds of events coming up all the time. I have two key questions. One is... Jane, I have to jump off a little bit early, like I mentioned, but just another thing is people, people can also donate to support the campaign at the website as well and factoryfarming.vote. Okay. Very good point. Thank you so much. So let me ask you, Samantha, a question here.

47:24 What is the timeline for farmers to transition if this passes? That's a really great question. So our timeline for phase-out is a three-year period. And then after that three-year period, there becomes some legal consequences like fines, et cetera, for those facilities that refuse to phase out or for the facilities that refuse to limit their size and limit their environmental footprint into a specific range. So our measure is only going to affect concentrated animal feeding operations. And so once you reduce your herd size or reduce your environmental footprint to a place where the EPA no longer considers you a factory farm, that will become another situation for those farmers.

48:13 But the transition phase is three years. And I know that there was a specific facility in Sonoma County that transitioned into a mushroom farm. And that was a comment that we got earlier. So I believe that that transition period only took about two years. It wasn't very long at all. And I know that the transition period for the quinoa farm in Humboldt County was actually less than a year. So all of these resources are available to the people who own these types of facilities and the people who work at these types of facilities who no longer want to work at these types of facilities. So the phase-out... Samantha, I read that animals are counted as units in the industry.

48:57 And, you know, I find that offensive just personally. But how does that factor in? A chicken is not an entire unit? Or a cow is an entire unit? What the heck? Yeah, it's very confusing. And I know that the director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau was the one who perpetuated that misinformation. But that is a USDA and FDA definition is animal units. But the EPA definition, which is the only definition that we're working on, and the only definitions that matters for the ballot measure are individual animals.

49:39 So the FDA and the USDA will judge animals in animal units, and the EPA will judge animals in individual animals. So again, that was just another really great example of pure disinformation and pure misunderstanding perpetuated by individuals that are involved with the Sonoma County Farm Bureau. I just want to say, I cannot independently confirm all of this. This is a lot of technical stuff. But we do invite the Farm Bureau on any time. Again, we would love to dialogue with you. You have an open invitation. I want to ask you about the big picture here.

50:20 If this passes, could this spread to other parts of the country? And Sarah, what are your thoughts on that? Oh, absolutely. I think that's one of the biggest reasons that this is becoming such a hot topic, and it's being talked about on news channels and on media outlets in other states, because the industry is so concerned that if we do have success, or maybe even if we don't have success, if we just raise enough awareness that other people are going to take the baton and run with it, I think they absolutely will. And it's about time.

51:00 So let me ask you, we only have a couple of minutes. We'll get final thoughts from each of you. But what about advertising? What about social media advertising and television advertising? I am very, very excited to get into the advertising period of our campaign. It is going to be an incredible creative process to work with a team that we've already been working with. I'm very, very excited to get our message out to everyone and to clear up some of the, like I said earlier, the extreme misunderstandings or the intentional misinformation that's being spread by our opponents.

51:42 There will be many different ways of advertising. We're going to most likely be using television, print, billboards, all of these other things. We're definitely going to take advantage of every single opportunity that we have available to us. So I'll definitely make sure that if we do have a television commercial or something like that, that we will send it to you, Jane, and you can send it to all of your followers as well. Well, let's put this in history with final thoughts. Where is this? One minute each. So let's start with Sarah. In the history of movements, where does this stand?

52:26 I personally perceive this as the new frontier of social justice movements. We've seen throughout history that there have been many great movements that have served to ultimately liberate and elevate various groups and gender in our society to establish rights and personhood. I believe that that's where we're at now, that there's this idea of speciesism that is starting to come to the surface. People are aware that animals are being treated very differently simply because they inhabit different body types than the human animal, and that they've been exploited and oppressed.

53:12 And I believe that we're really following that same trajectory and using a lot of the same strategies for social change and social movement that will elevate this issue and lift the animals up and change it so that they have rights and have personhood. All right. Samantha, your final thought. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like this ballot measure and all of the things that are happening in Sonoma County is really the dawn of a new era of this movement. We're looking at a time of truly unprecedented government and industry collusion. We're looking at a time of deep unrest within the people of not only just Sonoma County, but the people of the world.

54:00 We're tired of being lied to by large industries that are being protected by our government. We're tired of understanding that, especially in Sonoma County, we do not have the ability to influence our elected officials like the district attorney and the judge that actually presided over Wayne's trial is an elected official in Sonoma County. So we no longer have the ability to influence the judiciary system to take advantage of the laws that already exist in California. So this is going to be the absolute dawn of a movement where we're working, like Sarah said, with people who are perpetuating this idea that speciesism is wrong and perpetuating this idea that we have the right and the responsibility to take advantage of our judiciary system to actually make it work for the people.

54:49 We are out of time. Incredible guests, incredible panel. I'm going to leave you this final thought. We are the world's only plant-based animal rights streaming network. Please download us on your TV, on your phone. It's absolutely free. If you have a Samsung TV, it's right there in the smart hub. If you have any kind of TV, just use your Apple TV device, your Roku device, or your Amazon fire stick. Put in Unshade TV, one word, voila. It is there. We are a nonprofit and we are almost entirely volunteer run. See you next time here on.