Though you guys would find this argument interesting. All opposition to factory farming has been from the left.
by CalpurniaSomaya
Though you guys would find this argument interesting. All opposition to factory farming has been from the left.
by CalpurniaSomaya
38 Comments
Joel Salatin is very conservative and is one of the foremost voices for regenerative agriculture.
The left would be very popular if they’d stop pandering to the crazies and extremists.
Conservatives believe they have been chosen by God to have dominion over the land the see fish and Animals. ( women included)
It’s ok if the animals suffer at the hands of man because man is acting on behalf of God in managing the land the fish the sea and the animals.
It’s why the only land management advocacy from the right comes from hunters.
Agreed
I don’t care about politics, this is just an overall good post. No matter which side you’re on politically, you should support responsible production methods.
Man. The look of sheer horror and desperation in the left pig’s eyes is haunting.
When I started hanging around the organic farming spaces in the mid-late 00s, this was more true. Those folks were often left-leaning, hippie, back to the land inspired types. There were def a few libertarian/right leaning folks as well. Then 2020 happened and there was a big shift to the right and now you hear conservatives preaching about organics and homesteading and raw milk and left-leaning folks are less likely to advocate for those positions.
To me, this has been a helpful lesson in why you need to have beliefs and values that adhere to something more stable and rooted in reality than the American two-party system 🫠
I am for ethical and sustainable farming practices but this would drive costs up for a lot of people who are already struggling to get by. Ideally we Pasteur raise animals and reduce the use of highly toxic pesticides but these industries are over regulated and captured by large corporations who spend big money to maintain the status quo
I mean it is not unsual for a conservative viewpoint to be so pro-industry that they’re willing to sacrifice anything in the name of private profit – animal welfare, the environment, the health of women and children, etc
Factory farms is the closest Conservatives can get to slavery tho, so…
Conservation of the land and environment in general is always seen as a lefty issue. In reality I have observed more rural conservatives do more to conserve the environment than anyone from the city that virtue signals about being “green”.
The tax and regulatory state is the primary reason for the monopoly Big Ag has on food production.
Unfortunately, neither party in the US has any interest in dismantling that, because they are bought and paid for. Except Thomas Massie.
It also makes sense if talking about financial opposition.
I can’t think of any sizeable conservative political lobbying groups that aren’t purely motivated by increasing profits for their wealthy donors. Opposing factory farms does nothing for them.
The left, well also control by wealthy donors, have various avenues of interest in opposing factory farming. Animal rights, vegan/vegetarian causes, basic anti-corporate or anti-monopoly fights, etc.
Yeah the issue you’re running into is the reality that most (an overwhelming majority, IMO) conservatives don’t have any real principles. Just reactions.
The few conservatives directly harmed by factory farms will be against them. The ones who benefit will be for them. The ones that aren’t impacted by them at all will either not give a shit or be against them for ideological purity (virtue) signaling purposes.
Don’t get me wrong, that is a very good point, and one I agree on, on principle, however the “ideal” situations a lot of the time when it comes to farming, generally comes at a steep cost on efficiency and overhead that a lot of people simply cannot afford to– And yes, that is a different but also very real issue, but it is reality, and me taking a white horse stance would not help that. Unfortunately, if I have to put priorities on the table, the decision is clear, and I refuse to loose sleep on that. Especially not when it is not exactly in line with itself in spirit as a standard when we consider the brutality of day to day life for millions upon millions across the world.
Now, it is not a dichotomy, so after you are done with probably hating my opinion, I should add that a middle ground *does* exist, and we *should* try to facilitate ethical farming (all kind, sorry, I don’t know the name in english for the carnivore one) as much as reasonably possible and transition away from the grimace the industry provokes. Especially some industries in some cases (like the pig or chicken one), I doubt *all* those exact conditions are necessary for profit at current prices
To me, morality cannot exist without discretion, and discretion means nothing without reality. So I will always choose pragmatism over idealism, hoping theres enough to turn the latter into the former.
Whatever it takes to convince people, I don’t care! Say it all!
No it hasn’t. Wendell Berry? Joel Salatin? Any actual Christian?
As a lefty, I agree with this post. If farming was universaly this, I feel there would be far less leftist outcry.
Does the word “empathy” possibly have something to do with this slant?
I have wondered about this myself. All of the people that I personally know doing farming the old-fashioned way, traditional methods, low impact, trying to keep old farm culture going are all old hippies like me or younger more liberal people wanting a break from the corporate prison. The most traditional farm I know of in my area, right down to using mules to plow and selling eggs, honey and veg off the front lawn is a middle aged lesbian couple.
Everyone to a person that I know fighting the battle against the commercialization of our farmlands is on the left. Obviously my anecdotal experience is just that and not a universal truth, but I can clearly see a trend that one might not expect.
Expecting conservatives to have any sort of coherent political ideology is your first mistake
I’m not a fan of factory farms. The problem is that factory farming is very economical. Most people don’t know where their food comes from, what’s in it, or how it was raised. All they care about is cost and to a lesser extent taste. If we eliminate them in the US that will just be one more thing, one more essential thing we will end up importing making the US more dependent on foreign nations.
Another issue is that newer generations don’t want to keep the tradition of family farming alive. I see generational family farms passed on only for the children to cash in on them. Why bust your ass for change when you can sell or rent 600 acres to a solar company raking in millions with a simple signature?
I really don’t think this is accurate. Eating real grassfed, pasture raised, small local farmer raised meat and eggs is a huge part of MAHA. I don’t see most ppl on either side calling for an end to factory farming other than vegans, the vegans that are vegan because of animal rights.
Neo-con boomers =/= the modern millenial and Gen X right. Don’t confuse the two.
I feel like there’s hope. It’s a little backwards, but the “crunchy to conservative” pipeline is real. It’s the liberal youth who are most likely to follow the path of gardening, baking, sourdough bread, backyard chickens, hunting & fishing, self subsistence, living off the land, and eventually… well, trad life and conservatism. Hopefully, on a larger scale, this will result in more conservative organization against factory farming and more for local more humane farms.
“All opposition to factory farming has been from the left”
Voters or politicians? Many right wing voters oppose factory farming. The farm shares and co-ops I frequent are packed with homeschooling trad types.
It is true that traditionally the Republican establishment and politicians have not opposed factory farming, but neither has the DNC and their establishment.
The cost to pasture raise a pig is split about 3 ways between feed, butcher, and labour/infrastructure. Most people would not be willing to pay two of those. It’s cheaper at Walmart.
My politics are left-wing, I eat meat as part of my diet, I grew up on a family farm, and I have always been opposed to the industrial farm system. I also understand the industrial farm system better than the average suburban consumer.
You can have cheap and readily available food with industrial farming or you have to upend the entire system and support local agriculture and everything that involves. There is no magic solution.
You can’t have local farmers on $100,000+ an acre land and without subsidized water and energy.
Cheap land and subsidized utilities is how modern industrial farms work.
So choices must be made, and food will increase in price as quality and locality become the focus.
Why not both?
The older I get the more I realize the political spectrum is a circle.
That’s not true about the left vs right. Many conservative ranchers and farmers are working in the permaculture field. We live in an area where many ranchers run their cattle on huge pastures. As for me, my pigs have a great life. I run around with them in a big pen, they eat from our garden and they like beer and wine 🍷
I doubt livestock kept in medieval cities lived much better lives.
Edit: I wrote this because jonatan is glazing historic and conventional ranchers for some reason. Let’s ignore the fact that the animals are raised to be killed for a moment. I doubt the lack of ethics that allowed factory farming to be a thing is a new phenomenon. Livestock can be treated “well” but that doesn’t mean they were.
We’ve come a long way from the times of animal husbandry and ritual slaughter. We’ve taken the approach of divorcing the husbandry, but maximizing the slaughter. Instead of a moment of death, the entire life of an industrialized animal is one long mass slaughter.
There is no sacrifice required to stack animals on top of each other and pump them with medications so they don’t just immediately die from their horrible conditions. Ancient humans believed that if they made the right sacrifices that the earth would be renewed another year. It used to be that we thought that sacrificing an animal would do it. Then we realized the sacrifice was the hours and labor we put into caring for these animals. Then we were separated entirely from this process, save for a few, and the sacrifice is clearly and obviously insufficient, given the state of agriculture today what with top soil loss, aquifer destruction, etc etc.
Whole Foods was started by a conservative and it is frequented by a ton of hippies. . .
Then Democrat politicians wan mega processed cheap foods to be available on snap while right leaning farmers want to be able to spray their fields. . .
Healthy food and responsible ag has no political boundaries. Just focus on picking the right people!
We raise our chickens for meat and I am so proud to say that our chickens have good lives and one really, really bad day. The chickens for sale at the grocery store only have those really bad days (in fact much worse than our chickens sole bad day)
I would have figured conservatives would be more against it too while liberals would be for it. Liberals love the idea of minimizing resource usage at the expense of quality of life, they even want us to live like farm animals in tiny pods and own nothing.
I’m no vegan but I do believe we should give animals a good life before it’s time for slaughter and factory farms are hell for them. It’s a horrible practice.
yea let’s bring back the real farming vibes
Ohh. Is this sub right leaning?