This letter is to urge readers to vote no on state Issue 2, the so-called Animal Care issue. This writer
is a farmer, mostly retired, and I was raised on a small farm that produced livestock. I have seen and
experienced production from birth to packaged meat.
To begin, the issue is being pushed very hard by the Farm Bureau. This organization does not represent
the average farmer. In my years of following issues, it is safe to say that if Farm Bureau is for it, I
am against it. The support Farm Bureau provides surely means corporate agriculture is the recipient of
any benefit derived. Food safety is truly a bogus cause developed to sound important.
Continuing, the issue of animal welfare, at least initially, should be a matter of public law developed
from public debate and not written into our state Constitution, especially in a preemptive fashion to
favor one group.
Animal welfare is an issue that needs debate and not only by a constitutionally established committee of
controllable members.
In another vein, raising animals for consumption in extremely confining situations has both cruelty and
ecological issues which must be addressed. The Farm Bureau deserves a voice, but not the entire voice. I
especially urge a "no vote" on this important issue, Issue 2.
Lloyd A. Jones
Weston