- Published: May. 01, 2023, 6:30 a.m.
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Almost 10 billion animals are raised on U.S. factory farms every year, crowded together in intensive confinement and unable to carry out even some of their most basic natural behaviors. Local farmers are pushed out of business or into poverty while mega-corporations bring in record profits. It doesn’t have to be this way. There is legislation – Senate Bill 85-1 – that would protect our local communities from the threats factory farms pose to animals, farmers, our air and waterways and our rural communities.
New data from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals confirms that the vast majority of Oregonians (83%) support a moratorium on all kinds of new and expanding factory farms like the proposed Foster Farms industrial poultry operations or the Lost Valley and Easterday mega-dairies. For decades, mega-dairies have played a primary role in harming Oregon’s family-scale farmers and polluting the air and water of neighboring communities; this is why the moratorium must address factory farms in full.
Following multiple packed hearings held by the Oregon Senate Natural Resources Committee earlier this year, where this public sentiment was voiced, I urge my state lawmakers to follow through on the will of their constituents to keep dangerous factory farms out of Oregon.
Maral Cavner, Portland
Cavner is senior manager of corporate policy, ASPCA Farm Animal Welfare
To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.
Exposing the Big Game 
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