The Republican War on Vegetables
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The Republican War on Vegetables: Latest Salvo
By Kathleen Geier
Over at Salon, David Sirota reports from the frontlines of what Amanda Marcotte has amusingly dubbed “The Republican War on Vegetables.”
Sirota notes that, in response to the worst drought since 1950, “food
prices are expected to skyrocket, and eventually, water-dependent power
plants may be forced to shut down.”
In response to what amounts to a devastating national emergency, the
USDA, in an inter-office newsletter circulated to employees, suggested
(but in no way required) that those employees join the worldwide
campaign to refrain from eating meat on Mondays. Sirota explains:
The idea is part of the worldwide “Meatless Monday”
campaign, which the New York Times notes is backed by “thousands of
corporate cafeterias, restaurants and schools.” In the face of a
drought, it’s a pragmatic notion. Cornell University researchers
estimate that “producing a pound of animal protein requires, on average,
about 100 times more water than producing a pound of vegetable
protein.” According to the U.S. Geological Survey, that means a typical
hamburger requires a whopping 4,000 to 18,000 gallons of water to make.
So how did the right react to this (genuinely) modest proposal? Sirota enumerates some of the ways:
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, called the recommendation “heresy”
and pledged to “have the double rib-eye Mondays instead.” Sen. Chuck
Grassley, R-Iowa, told his drought-stricken constituents that “I will
eat more meat on Monday to compensate” for the USDA suggestion. And Sen.
John Cornyn, R-Texas, proudly posted a photo to his Facebook page
showing a Caligulian smorgasbord of animal flesh that his Senate
colleagues were preparing to scarf down as a protest against USDA.
It should be well and duly noted that all three of those fine upstanding fellows are deep in the pockets of the meat industry.
I was fascinated by the ridiculous temper tantrum these three
stooges staged, because it’s a pitch-perfect illustration not only of
how the wingnut outrage machine works, but how the economic and cultural
arms of the conservative movement not only work hand in glove, but are
pretty much the same thing. Doing the bidding of the meat industry,
Grassley and company are dedicated, of course, to squelching any
initiative that has the word “meatless” in it. But cleverly, they don’t
make dry economic arguments; what they do, is turn it into a culture war
— into identity politics, really. Suddenly, eating animal flesh means
you’re a real man, a true blue conservative, and the kind of two-fisted
red-blooded American who stands up to socialistic pointy-headed
bureaucrats, by gawd. As we’ve seen with the Chick-fil-A controversy,
even food preferences have become a proxy for politics.
You really are what you eat, indeed.
Alas, the piece of absurdist political performance art put on by
Grassley (and isn’t he supposed to be one of the “reasonable” ones?) et
al. had its effect. In a statement released after the trio’s antics, the
USDA meekly announced
that it “does not endorse Meatless Monday.” According to a news report,
the department said that “[t]he information on its website ‘was posted
without proper clearance and it has been removed.’”
If this is the Obama administration’s reaction to an unofficial, internal, nonbinding, suggestion
that, in the midst of a cataclysmic agricultural emergency, its
employees in one freaking agency forego meat for just one day per week?
Don’t even talk to me about global warming, folks. We are doomed, I say!
Utterly, totally, absolutely doomed.
Okay, that was a total bummer. Let me find a cool music video to cheer me up, and hopefully you as well.
Read More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-...
*headdesk*
I swear people will shoot themselves in the foot if Obama or the government in general suggested you did not, because it would hurt and potentially would put you at risk of death.
It's a suggestion. A request to help keep the price of meat down due to the drought in the midwest and the inability to keep animals properly fed. It is not a mandate. It is not some requirement. But it'll help get us through next year without skyrocketing meat prices.
For goodness sake, people - GROW THE FARK UP.
Ya know, these well off hypocrites don't really care about conservation of any kind because they know that they'll be getting whatever scarcities are available simply by wealth or control of those scarcities. Only the poor and middle class will be fighting for the scraps.
My principal suggestion to NotE and Ms. Geier is that they arrange for a picnic luncheon at the seashore where they spread out their blanket and their tofu delectables at low tide and command the sea to stay its movement until they are done. In due time, assuming they take reasonable time to savor their food as nutritionists now recommend, they will be engulfed by the forces they sought to command. Then why do I suggest that they engage in this update of the Legend of Cnut? Because the three representatives cited in the story all come from districts where meat-production is a big business. NotE and KG would have you see it that there is some sort of Republican/Democratic dichotomy here. KMA. What is in evidence here is that politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, engage in political dramas in support of businesses th...
My principal suggestion to NotE and Ms. Geier is that they arrange for a picnic luncheon at the seashore where they spread out their blanket and their tofu delectables at low tide and command the sea to stay its movement until they are done. In due time, assuming they take reasonable time to savor their food as nutritionists now recommend, they will be engulfed by the forces they sought to command. Then why do I suggest that they engage in this update of the Legend of Cnut? Because the three representatives cited in the story all come from districts where meat-production is a big business. NotE and KG would have you see it that there is some sort of Republican/Democratic dichotomy here. KMA. What is in evidence here is that politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, engage in political dramas in support of businesses that are important to their constituents and - IMHO - King Cnut had more hope of bending the tides to his will than we do of turning around the truism of modern politics to which I just made reference.
According to this logic, everyone should grab their gun, head into the woods and kill the local wildlife because those filthy animals use up all our precious water :) Every gallon they drink simply vanishes into thin air, never to be reintroduced into the environment.
Of course things aren't quite as simple as that. Republican politicians might not be the most ecology savvy people, but even they recognize BS when they see it and answer in the same fashion. Simplistic nonsense in, simplistic nonsense out.
There is a much more important food-related problem, imho: A large number of U.S. citizens, probably the majority, will eat neither vegetables nor meat on Monday. Instead, they will dine on something cheap, processed and MSG- or HFCS-enhanced that comes in a colorful plastic wrapper or cardboard box and could contain just about anything. Such as wood pulp, which is added to many baked goods nowadays because it's cheaper th...
According to this logic, everyone should grab their gun, head into the woods and kill the local wildlife because those filthy animals use up all our precious water :) Every gallon they drink simply vanishes into thin air, never to be reintroduced into the environment.
Of course things aren't quite as simple as that. Republican politicians might not be the most ecology savvy people, but even they recognize BS when they see it and answer in the same fashion. Simplistic nonsense in, simplistic nonsense out.
There is a much more important food-related problem, imho: A large number of U.S. citizens, probably the majority, will eat neither vegetables nor meat on Monday. Instead, they will dine on something cheap, processed and MSG- or HFCS-enhanced that comes in a colorful plastic wrapper or cardboard box and could contain just about anything. Such as wood pulp, which is added to many baked goods nowadays because it's cheaper than flour. (I bet trees require even less water than healthy vegetables).
And here we are pretending that ordinary middle class people can still afford fresh meat and vegetables like some sort of billionaire :) Or that anyone would have time to cook in between working 2-3 jobs. Or that the MSG- and sugar-addicted masses would even want to eat real food given the choice. That's a far more urgent concern imho.
I think that the latter is much less productive. People don't like to be told "you're evil for doing what comes natural to you". I mean, humans are omnivorous predators by nature. A million years ago, our Homo erectus ancestors were already hunting animals on a daily basis. The first Homo sapiens was likely wrapped in an animal fur right after birth and given chunks of roasted meat as soon as he was old enough to chew solid food.
Agriculture, on the other hand, has only been around for 7-10,000 years, and has brought us countless civilization diseases such as diabetes and arthritis. Of course that is not an argument against vegetables but rather against cereals and corn. But this also means that the problem is not the burger, it's the bun.
There is nothing unhealthy about a high protein, low carb diet if you stay clear of proce...
I think that the latter is much less productive. People don't like to be told "you're evil for doing what comes natural to you". I mean, humans are omnivorous predators by nature. A million years ago, our Homo erectus ancestors were already hunting animals on a daily basis. The first Homo sapiens was likely wrapped in an animal fur right after birth and given chunks of roasted meat as soon as he was old enough to chew solid food.
Agriculture, on the other hand, has only been around for 7-10,000 years, and has brought us countless civilization diseases such as diabetes and arthritis. Of course that is not an argument against vegetables but rather against cereals and corn. But this also means that the problem is not the burger, it's the bun.
There is nothing unhealthy about a high protein, low carb diet if you stay clear of processed and preserved meat (the supposed link between meat and cancer turned out to be a link between nitrite curing salts and cancer). Many nutrition experts promote high protein diets, such as the paleolithic diet, over the traditional, grain heavy food pyramid or the equally cereal heavy vegetarian diet. But this valuable information, which has greatly improved my Crohn's disease btw, is droned out by the noise of the anti-meat choir.
Bottom line: Different people have different dietary needs. Don't make people feel bad for their nutritional choices and requirements.
Maybe if Obama was tlo return the water rights he stole from the farmers out west, we could save the cow too and just eat more chicken....at Chik-fil-A, of course.