Guest Post: Vote Yes on California's Prop 2

The following guest post on Proposition 2 and the treatment of farm animals comes from Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer Inc. and the keeper of seven blogs, including Veggie Goes Vegan and Elisa's Green Scene. Elisa is also a California resident and a vegan. -S. Ernst

Vote Yes On California's Proposition 2, even if you’re a vegan who wishes it did more!

I am a vegan, and by all accounts that means I represent about 1% of the U.S. population. However, about 63% of American households have pets and can be assumed to be fond of animals. On Wednesday, November 5, we will find out whether Californians are willing to afford the barest of creature comforts (to be able to lie down, turn around, and extend their limbs) to some, and only some, of the millions of creatures we humans confine for the purpose of food.

Don’t get me wrong: Whether Proposition 2 passes or not, the vast majority of food animals will continue to experience an existence that few of us would argue is comfortable and that most of us would agree is torturous. A few more square feet will not make happy animals. The passage of Prop 2 wouldn’t send me to eat a burger, or even an omelet. Proposition 2 is one of those pinky Band-Aids applied to a deep gash in our ethics.

But my path from becoming a vegetarian in 1989 to finally becoming a full vegan in 2006 has been based on two philosophies.

The first is this: Do what you can until you can do better.

I know it’s hard not to just shine it on when we’re not really privy to what happens on factory farms. I also know it’s hard not to get cynical when we learn that terms like “free-range” have no muscle behind them. Finally, I know that many of you are not planning to make some overnight conversion to veg*nism, no matter what you know or find out.

Nonetheless, everyone around me is becoming more conscious of where our food comes from and how the ways we produce and consume that food affect our own health and the planet’s. I know many of you see how food production has become industrialized and feel uncomfortable with the level of cruelty inflicted on animals that we have come to realize are thinking, feeling creatures, even if they’re not exactly like us.

But what about those of us who do raise our voices on behalf of these animals that the food industries would like to keep out of sight and out of mind behind closed factory farm doors? For veg*ns like me it’s hard to feel happy about legislation like Proposition 2. This proposition does not come close to fixing everything that’s wrong with the way food animals are treated today. In fact, a lot of us are concerned that passing the proposition will encourage complacency and continued denial, not real change.

But as a vegan I constitute only 1% of the population, while as someone who cares for animals, I constitute about 63%. So, sure, I can feel that 1% of me is entirely right, but it’s 63% of me who is going to be effective.

We should do what we can, until we can do better, to ease the suffering and reduce the risk of contamination represented by the most horrific factory farming practices.

My second philosophy is this: I simply have no compelling reason not to be a veg*n. I can live quite healthily as a vegan. I don’t need to eat animal products. So the only compelling reasons not to be a veg*n are convenience and taste, because yes, it is sometimes challenging to be a veg*n. And yes, I think animal products taste good. But these are not compelling reasons—these are selfish and/or lazy reasons.

There is no compelling reason to vote against Proposition 2, despite what the misleading ads say. They must think we can’t do math; otherwise they would never claim that what analysts predict will be an extra $.01 per egg cost to upgrade enclosures per the proposition’s requirements will result in a “dollars per dozen” rise in consumer cost for this quite profitable industry (as I heard an egg producer claim on Oprah’s infamous episode on this proposition).

They are trying to distract us with potential doomsday scenarios about scary eggs from foreign places because they'd rather we didn't pay too much attention to the food safety issues we already have with food produced in factory farm conditions.

Finally, there are the “free market” folks who think regulation is bad. But obviously we’ve all realized in the last few weeks, if we didn’t know already, that we are not a truly free market society. We can and do and should regulate a variety of things throughout every industry. The market moves too slowly when it comes to mass cruelty, and sometimes the market needs a little push to get started down the right path. Giving this industry until 2015 to comply hardly seems onerous (particularly since they already like to claim they’re getting there, they’re getting there.)

For all of these reasons I urge you to vote for Proposition 2. I even urge those of you who are not ready or willing to become a veg*n to seek out animal products from more humanely raised animals.

It is truly the least we can do. It is truly better to do something than to do nothing. There is truly no compelling reason not to do something now, when we’re given this opportunity.

Photo from ChooseVeg.com