Campaign against Measure J ramps up as supporters stage silent protest outside Rohnert Park event

ROHNERT PARK — The “No on J” launch on Thursday evening sometimes sounded more like a high school football rally than a political event.

“Measure J is bad because it hurts …” Congress member Mike Thompson began, allowing 200 to 300 of Sonoma County’s agricultural-industry supporters to finish the thought.

“Farmers!!” everyone shouted, reading from the campaign sign behind the St. Helena Democrat.

“Measure J is bad because it costs …”

“Taxpayers!!”

“Measure J is bad because it eliminates …”

“Jobs!!”

The counter-message was more subdued. On a sidewalk only about 50 yards from the auditorium hosting the launch, about three-dozen protesters gathered with “Yes on J” signs. They stood quiet sentinel as their political opponents made hay inside.

“We’ve heard there are no factory farms in Sonoma County. That’s not true,” said Kristina Garfinkel, a Santa Rosa resident and an organizer with the Coalition to End Factory Farming, the group that sponsored the ballot initiative. “We want people to see the truth. The opposition doesn’t.”

While the two sides have rented billboards and bought radio ads, spreading their mutually adamant messages, this was a rare blending. It was all quite peaceful. After the event, as farmers and their advocates filed out of the building and past protesters, the scene was almost silent, as if everyone was determined not to make a scene.

The closest thing to fireworks came just before the launch when Gerard Giudice, Rohnert Park’s vice mayor and the owner of Sally Tomatoes, where the gathering was held, abruptly shooed the demonstrators away from a courtyard visible from the auditorium.

“You’re on private property — my property,” Giudice told them. “You need to leave. Now.”

He pointed them to the parking lot a short distance away, and the protesters moved away.

This will not be the end of the debate surrounding Measure J, which seeks to ban “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs, in Sonoma County.

The measure promises to draw the most spending, and perhaps the most emotion, of any initiative on the local ballot this November. Its proponents argue that Measure J will remove animals from the county’s most inhumane farms and check environmental degradation in the area’s rolling hills. Foes argue that … well, they said a whole lot about the initiative Thursday.

Dayna Ghirardelli, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau called the bill “stupid and totally unnecessary.” Assembly member Jim Wood described it as “absolutely horrible.” His colleague in the Assembly, Damon Connolly, referred to it as “misguided.” To Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, it was “poor and incompetent.” Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, pithy as ever, went with “bulls**t.”

Other elected officials in attendance included state Sen. Bill Dodd, city council members Jackie Elward of Rohnert Park, Sylvia Lemus of Cotati, Chris Rogers of Santa Rosa and Jill McLewis of Sebastopol.

Two officeholders who were unable to attend, state Senate President Mike McGuire and Assembly member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, also are staunchly against Measure J, according to those on the dais Thursday.

As a couple of the politicians pointed out, opposition to the bill crosses party lines, with the county’s Democratic and Republican leadership both endorsing its defeat.

“They can’t agree on anything, but they agree Measure J is poor policy,” Rabbitt said.

Valid or not, the dairy families and chicken farmers assembled at Sally Tomatoes clearly see Measure J as an existential threat — to their livelihoods, to the local economy and to an industry that remains iconic in this county in the age of tech and urban sprawl.

Ghirardelli got the festivities rolling by telling the audience that nearly 50% of California’s organic milk is produced in Sonoma County, and that Measure J, if passed, would drive multigenerational family farms out of business, cripple the local economy and harm the environment by resulting in more food being delivered from out of the area.

While not ostensibly a fundraiser, the launch clearly aimed to mobilize Measure J’s opponents. Speaker after speaker encouraged listeners to get involved, donate, post signs on their property, talk to neighbors and acquaintances about the dangers of the bill — and of course, vote.

Another common refrain was that if Measure J passes, it will trigger a domino effect that wipes out farms all over California. And if it doesn’t win by a clear margin, it will encourage the animal rights supporters to keep trying.

“This initiative is bad,” Thompson said. “We need to make sure we not only defeat it, but put the proverbial stake in its heart so it doesn’t come back again.”

Should Measure J pass, it would establish the first county ordinance of its kind in the United States.

The Yes on J demonstration began on Valley House Road, farther from the auditorium, where the protesters aimed signs at passing motorists. The largest read “FACTORY FARMING = ANIMAL CRUELTY” and “END FACTORY FARMING.” They had also printed large-format images of distressed and dying animals, photos they said were taken in Sonoma County at Sunrise Egg Farm, Reichardt Duck Farm and a Petaluma Poultry supplier.

Among the measure’s supporters was Karin Lease, who has lived in Sonoma County for 60 years and cut her teeth protesting the Vietnam War. Lease said she’d seen the evidence of how animals are mistreated on local farms.

“I was behind a truck, once, and I thought it was snowing,” she said. “There were white feathers everywhere, because they’d been thrown in there. They were crying. Their feathers were everywhere. Their wings were stuck in the cages. My whole perspective changed.”

People like Lease believe Measure J would reduce that degradation.

An “animal feeding operation” is a plot of land where animals are “stabled or confined and fed or maintained for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period, and crops, vegetation, forage growth or post-harvest residues are not sustained in the normal growing season over any portion” of the property.

An AFO becomes a CAFO when it exceeds a certain size, depending on type of animal. A “medium-scale” farm also could fit the definition if it discharges manure directly into surface water.

But the Coalition to End Factory Farming has said no medium-sized farms in Sonoma County have been documented discharging into surface water, so Measure J would affect only the largest dairies and poultry farms. The county’s Economic Development Board identified 11 facilities that exceed the large-scale CAFO threshold.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.