Farmers Encouraged to Move

States without protective legislation for farm animals, like Idaho, Georgia, and Nevada, are offering California farmers incentives to relocate. This past Sunday, at the Wilson County Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman called on factory farms to aggressively respond to welfare reform “extremists,” referring to voters like those in California who overwhelmingly passed Prop. 2, which will phase out battery cages by 2015. The states without protective legislation like Prop. 2 are appealing to farmers’ fears that moving to more humane systems will drive up overhead costs. Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, says relocation to unregulated states is only a short-term solution because consumers are increasingly demanding humane conditions for food animals.