Massachusetts Bans the Battery Cage

On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voters passed Question 3, a ballot measure requiring that egg-laying hens, breeding pigs, and veal calves have enough space to lie down, stand up, extend their limbs, and turn around freely. The measure passed with 77.64 percent of the vote, one of the widest margins any farm animal welfare law has won at the ballot box. It also barred the sale in Massachusetts of eggs, pork, and veal from animals confined that way anywhere, not just inside the state, so producers as far away as Iowa had to pay attention. The campaign, run by a coalition called Citizens for Farm Animal Protection and backed by the Humane Society of the United States, framed the law as catching up to a shift the egg industry was already making. A few small Massachusetts farmers said they felt caught in the crossfire of a fight aimed at industrial operations far bigger than theirs.