Poultry Specialist-Emeritus Don Bell, University of California, Riverside, recently responded to the passing of California’s Proposition 2.
Bell said that the TV-inspired win in California doesn't mean it has to go any further, change the facts of the issue, and that it does not represent a "ground-swell of support from the general public" as some would suggest. He urged producers to have confidence in what they know is right and what is best for their flocks.
Current systems corrected dozens of problems associated with older systems some 70 years ago, he added. To "turn the clock back" to the pre-cage era would be fool-hardy, harmful to the flocks, wasteful of resources, a health-risk to the consumer and costly to the farmer and general public.
“We have to believe that a radical minority can not and should not win over the majority in a democratic society,” he added. “Systems must be and are available to correct errors in the ballot box.”
Bell continued to say that as written Proposition 2 is too vague and based upon distortions of the truth.
E-mail Bell to receive the full text of his response to Proposition 2.
