Presidential candidate Senator Cory (Spartacus) Booker — supporter of the “Green New Deal” — only wants the rich to be able to afford meat — and he doesn’t want the world’s destitute to have access to increased amounts of that important food product.
Booker told Veg News that he is a vegan. Bully for him. I respect those kinds of decisions.
But he also says that the world’s poor can’t be allowed to increase their meat consumption. From the interview:
You see the planet earth moving towards what is the Standard American Diet. We’ve seen this massive increase in consumption of meat produced by the industrial animal agriculture industry. The tragic reality is this planet simply can’t sustain billions of people consuming industrially produced animal agriculture because of environmental impact. It’s just not possible, as China, as Africa move toward consuming meat the same way America does because we just don’t have enough land.
The number-one reason for rainforest destruction now is animal grazing land. We see greenhouse producing gases produced; the devastating impact is just not practical. The numbers just don’t add up. We will destroy our planet unless we start figuring out a better way forward when it comes to our climate change and our environment.
I am always fried by environmentalist telling the destitute and poor of the world that they can’t possibly be allowed to attain the benefits of prosperity that the West has achieved, whether it is a reliable electricity grid made possible by fossil fuels or healthy diets rich in the needed protein meat provides.
Booker also wants to drive “Big Ag” out of business:
It’s small farmers who are treating animals with better care and compassion, who are treating the environment in a more sustainable way that really speak to the farming traditions of our country being destroyed economically because of this corporate consolidation that is unsustainable.
So I think that we have a lot of work to do to start fighting again this Big Ag, industrial agriculture that has deep pockets and powerfully influential in places like Washington, but I don’t believe the status quo is going to continue indefinitely because I just think that we know that we’re starting to see the ill that this is having to farm labor, small farmers, to our environment, to the health and safety of folks.
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So my hope is that these bipartisan efforts are going to continue to facilitate change, and perhaps, help us get back to sustainable farm practices that can prevent against the ills that are so harmful on so many levels.
Easy for him to say. But here’s the hard truth: If we do away with industrial methods of raising food animals, only the well off will be able to afford meat. Small family farms cannot possibly supply meat to the well-over 300 million Americans who want it in their diets, and the costs of those products, if limited to politically correct sources, would be prohibitive.
I would also note that beef cattle — which the Green New Deal identifies as enemies of the planet — are not raised in confined spaces, but often graze contentedly on hills safe from most predators until it is time to go to the feedlot, where they are slaughtered quickly and humanely.
Yes, there are some individual cases of abuse. But those are the exception. And when they arise, they should be hammered by law enforcement.
Whenever I write a post such as this, I am accused of being indifferent to animal suffering. Baloney. Of course, there should be strong animal-welfare standards that apply to large producers and small. It’s not an either-or situation.
Senator Booker can be as vegan as he wants. And if he is able to convince others to follow his lead, more power to him.
But if he were president, it is clear that he would use the naked power of the office to force the rest of us to eat much less meat — and pay much more for the little that we were allowed to consume. That should be an electoral deal killer.
HT: The Free Beacon.
LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Human Exeptionalism.
