Subscribe to the blog by RSSThe Rural Vote on Prop 2
The factory farm corporations that spent $9 million to oppose Proposition 2 in California would have us all believe that urban city slickers just don't know what it's really like on the farm. They tried to romanticize agriculture and use farmers as spokespersons, even though these are the very corporations that have polluted rural communities and pushed family farms out of business.
The vote on Prop 2 demonstrates that urban and rural citizens alike saw through it all. With 79% of the precincts reporting so far, the map shows that we didn't just win wide margins in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, but we also won solid majorities in rural counties with a heavy agricultural presence like Kern, Imperial, Riverside, and San Bernardino.
The fact is, no matter where people live, they know that cruelty is just wrong. And the people who live in the closest proximity to industrial farm animal production know just what kind of impact these factory farms have not only on animal welfare but also on the environment, public health, and poverty.
Californians from every demographic and every corner of the state sent a simple message tonight: All animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food. And that's a message that will be heard in the Midwest, the South, and all across the country.
Michael Markarian is the president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization that lobbies for animal welfare legislation and works to elect humane-minded candidates to public office. In almost 15 years in the animal protection movement, Markarian has worked for the passage of countless state laws and federal statutes to protect animals, in addition to helping defeat some of the strongest anti-animal welfare politicians in the United States. 
