At a Farmer’s Market on Sunday, I was accosted by a nice lady from the Humane Society that wanted me to sign a petition to get an initiative on the ballot regarding living conditions for farm animals. I told her no, saying that was fascist. That totally flummoxed her. “Fascist?” she said, wandering away shaking her head in bewilderment.

Yes, nice lady. I agree that chickens and pigs and beef and especially veal don’t have room to turn around on most farms. That is why I buy free range poultry and meat and never buy veal at all. What I do to keep meat animals happy, is buy humanely raised animals. Forcing every farmer in California to give their meat animals more room will just make those farmers go out of business faster. More than likely, their inhumane operations will be bought up by large companies with lawyers good at finding loopholes.

So, no ballot measures for humane treatment of meat animals for me.