How a Measure in Sonoma County is Taking on “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations”

A Conversation with Cassie King from the Coalition to End Factory Farms

During this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie and Michael welcome Cassie King, from Direct Action Everywhere, to talk about our relationship with animals, and more specifically about proposed legislation in California that aims to end factory farming. Together they explore the way our treatment of animals reflects and in fact is an expression of how we treat each other and ourselves. The depths of the cruelty with which animals are treated is revealed when we look inside ‘factory farms’ or CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). In this kind of a profit driven environment, everyone suffers: workers, owners and animals:

When you have over 700 cows [in a CAFO], I mean, can you imagine having 700 dogs and trying to care for them with a handful of people who, you know, are running a business and don't have all day to provide that care? And there's also a profit incentive not to provide whatever medical care they need if it's going to exceed the costs of what you can get in return from that animal. That's just how business works.

Through this new Sonoma County legislation, Measure J, activists like Cassie are hoping to make people aware of the brutality of factory farming and offer some clear steps and support on the way to ending it. In doing so, Cassie suggests we can transform our relationship to those with whom we share this planet from one of violence and domination to one of harmony and deep respect.

Transcript archived at Waging Nonviolence