This is a ballot measure that prohibits the cruel confinement of certain farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs. Pigs during pregnancy are confined in metal cages called gestation crates and are unable even to turn around for months on end. Young calves are also kept purposely confined in veal crates so small they are barely able to move for nearly their entire lives. And egg-laying hens are often kept in tiny battery cages, unable even to spread their wings.

Nearly 800,000 voters signed petitions in support of placing the initiative on November's ballot. The California Democratic Party endorses the measure, as do Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and cities from Los Angeles to Davis. Other endorsers include The Humane Society of the United States, California veterinarians including the California Veterinary Medical Association; family farmers; Center for Food Safety; Consumer Federation of America; Center for Science in the Public Interest; Cesar Chavez Foundation; the prestigious Pew Commission on animal agriculture; Republican and Democratic elected officials; leaders of the Episcopal, Methodist, and Catholic churches; and more. For a complete list of endorsements, click here.

And, most recently, the editorial board of The New York Times weighed in and powerfully so, by emphatically endorsing Proposition 2, the California ballot initiative to ban veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages. To read the complete editorial, click here.

Photo credit: The Humane Farming Association