In California last year, the rights of a small minority were the target of a ballot initiative campaign. The minority rallied, but its campaign was overwhelmed by a better-run campaign on the yes side, and by what the minority saw as bias and misinformation.

I'm not talking about Prop 8. The minority in this case is California's farmers, who were on the losing side of Prop 2, an initiative backed by the Humane Society to impose limits on how chickens and other animals can be confined. The farmers are furious at the result, and they're gathering together to figure out how to combat misinformation and get out the word that farmers are just like everybody else. Details on a recent post-Prop 2 meeting of farmers are in this Visalia Times-Delta editorial.

Nashville voters rejected an "English only" ballot initiative, according to returns Thursday night. A second measure, Proposition 2, which would have made it much easier to qualify initiatives for the city ballot (the current signature requirement is 10 percent of voters; this would have dropped that to 1 percent), also went down to defeat.

Jennifer Fearing, who managed the winning campaign for Prop 2, the California ballot initiative on farm animal confinement, read this earlier post from Fiona Hutton, consultant to No on 2, and wanted to respond. Here's what she said:

Watching TV in California these days is enough to make you physically ill. The problem? The ads for and against Prop 2, the initiative to regulate farm animal confinement. The Yes ads, produced by the Humane Society of the United States (perhaps the leading practitioner and defender of ballot initiative campaigns in the country), have -- in a small box on the screen (the full screen was deemed too disturbing for viewers) -- video of farm animals in distress. The no campaign warns about salmonella and other diseases if Prop 2 passes and animals are free to walk around. The yes campaign has responded to this by saying that the current use of caged animals actually contributes to salmonella. So, both sides are talking about salmonella.

This piece on the California initiative on farm animal confinement had been anticipated -- the Humane Society clearly gave the writer, Maggie Jones, considerable access -- but there's nothing new in it. It does provide a fair look at both sides of the issue, with some historical context.

This new TV ad agsint Prop 2, the California ballot initiative to regulate farm animal confinement., suggests darkly that passage of the initiative would lead to the importing of food from Mexico. Egg farmers, who say their businesses could not survive tighter regulation (chickens would have to be able to stand up and walk around), have been waging a campaign against the measure with arguments that food will be more expensive and less safe if Prop 2 passes. Those are fair arguments, but this new ad goes too far. 

Californians already eat all kinds of food produced in Mexico. We eat food from all over the world. But the ad only mentions Mexico, a tactic that appears designed to capitalize on uninformed stereotypes about eating and drinking south of the border.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 14), Oprah Winfrey devotes her show to a look at how farm animals are treated, with a look at Prop 2, the California ballot initiative on farm animal confinement.

Today's Sacramento Bee has an interesting overview of Prop 2, the California ballot initiative limiting how farm animals may be confined. If enacted, California farms effectively would be prohibited from raising hens in cages.

Former farm boy and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof backs Prop 2, the California initiative to create a little more space for farm animals. He also writes about killing geese. Referring to the November vote on the measure, Kristof calls it "the most importnat election this November you've never heard of."

Capitol Weekly examines how the use of the Internet by the proponents of Prop 2, the Humane Society's California ballot initiative to change the rules of farm animal confinement, show the way to the future of initiative politics. Joe Trippi is in the middle of this campaign.