Voters decide whether animals need more space

From the Washington Post, via Los Angeles, California.

I have written a few articles in the past about the cruel and inhumane confinement that many animals on factory farms exist in. I will continue to write them until I feel the message has gotten across, and similar initiatives have passed in all fifty states.
I personally believe that battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates, among other factory farm atrocities, are cruel and unnecessary punishment of innocent animals. Just because we're going to eat them doesn't mean we have to torture them first. I hope everyone visits Farm Sanctuary and sees what I'm talking about.
If you think I'm right about cruel confinement that's great. If you don't, that's okay too. But either way I hope you read the article, and do a little research about the humane and food safety issues behind this ballot measure.
What really rankles me is the amount of money people have put into campaigns to either support or defeat this measure. I can never understand why people throw all their money at campaigning instead of just going out and DOING the thing. With the money both sides have thrown at the problem, they could have probably gotten together and done a lot to come to some sort of compromise on the issue. Like raised the money necessary to help large-scale egg-farming operations convert from battery cages to a cage-free operation. Why do people always have to use their money to FIGHT?
Again, my personal thought, everything comes down to the consumer. If the consumer shows the operator that they want a different product, or they are willing to pay for something to be done differently, the operator will eventually have to bow to the consumer. So California voters, if you want cage-free, antibiotic-free, disease-free laying hens laying your eggs, get out the vote and tell them so.
My final thought on factory farms: I don't like'em. I believe in local economy, and supporting your local farmers, not giant corporations. For a few months now I've been getting the majority of my eggs from seven free-range hens of varying breeds we keep on our farm, and they do me just fine. However, if anyone knows the secret to getting hardboiled farm fresh brown eggs to peel cleanly, I'd be obliged to know it.

Still on my blacklist: Dairy Cow tail-docking. When will it stop?