Brookline Town Meeting passes veal ban resolution

By Laura Paine/staff writer

Wicked Local Brookline
Posted Nov 18, 2010 @ 01:03 PM

Brookline — Brookline Town Meeting passed a resolution that asks grocers, restaurants,
caterers and other food vendors to stop selling or serving crated veal in a 163-4 vote.
According to petitioner Rachel Baras, many veal calves are separated from their mothers
within a few days of being born and put into restrictive crates that do not allow them to easily
lie down or move, in order to achieve a pale and tender piece of meat.
“The purpose [of Article 21] is to motivate food purveyors and consumers to think
critically about what they’re buying and supporting just has they did with trans fats and
smoking,” Baras said, referring to two previous Brookline bans. “You’ll be a part of a
movement to improve lives. They are animal lives, but they are lives nonetheless.”
Baras received support from both the Board of Selectmen and the Advisory Committee.
Five states have passed measures outlawing crated veal calves, and similar legislation is
pending in New York.

Other articles
Members voted to take no action on Article 11, which would have required combined
reports from the Advisory Committee to include a roll call showing the vote of each member
during a formal vote of a recommendation. Selectman Richard Benka said the change was not
adopted by Town Meeting in 2002, and that nothing has changed since then.
“It would present a raw vote without a context of the committee discussion underlying that
vote,” Benka said. “That transparency is illusory at best, and at worst destructive. It ain’t
broken. It manages itself well under the policies that have been in place since 2002. Let’s let
it continue to do so.”
Town Meeting members did approve Article 19, an experimental change to the 2011 Town
Meeting schedule. Meetings will take place on nonconsecutive nights, which could extend
over the course of two weeks.
Town Meeting Member Joseph Ross said nonconsecutive meetings were successful in the
past, and the current schedule is taxing, because it is often three nights in a row that
members can’t do anything else.
“We tend not to give adequate consideration to the articles at the end of the warrant when
we go for three nights,” Ross said. “I think we get a little tired at the end. I don’t remember
that being quite the problem so many years ago. People come to the extent that they are able
to and I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I am in favor of trying this once and then we
will have further discussions.”
While the Advisory Committee recommended voting in favor of the resolution, the Board
of Selectmen recommended no action, because they said it was unclear that this exercise
would generate any useful information.
Laura Paine can be reached at lpaine@cnc.com.

Brookline Fall Town Meeting recap

The following votes are from Wednesday's session of Brookline Fall Town Meeting.

Article 11 —NO ACTION (see story)

Article 12 — A prohibition on transporting children or babies by bicycle. NO ACTION
Article 13 — A change to the Wetlands Protection By-Law to include “isolated land
subject to flooding.” APPROVED
Article 14 —APPROVED (see story)
Article 15 — A technical correction to Chapter 51 of the Acts of 2010, Taxi Medallions.
APPROVED
Article 16 — To dedicate the land known as Fisher Hill Reservoir Park for park purposed
which is required for a State grant under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act.
APPROVED
 Article 17 — An amendment to correct an error in the language of Town Meeting’s vote
taken on Nov. 18, 2009, to purchase of the State-owned Fisher Hill Reservoir. APPROVED
Article 18 — Vote to accept a Grant of a Surface Water Drain Easement from the MBTA, a
portion land at or near Station Street and Pear Street. NO ACTION
Article 19 —APPROVED (see story)
Article 20 — To review and adopt standards for determining when the benefits of
prohibiting a right turn on red outweigh the detrimental environmental consequences and
traffic inefficiencies resulting from such a prohibition. APPROVED
Article 21 —APPROVED (see story)

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