The issue of the American Conservative now out on newsstands has a lengthy cover article by Matthew Scully on the practice of factory farming, and of conservative indifference towards it. Scully, a former special assistant to President Bush and the author of Dominion: The Power of Man and the Suffering of Animals is disappointed in his allies to say the least.
Many on the right seem to content to reflexively oppose the left on issues such as animal cruelty and organizations such as PETA are easy to mock. Scully makes the case that conservatives should care about factory farming, which he describes as a "preditory enterprise." For those who would attempt to feed him free market baloney, he notes that it is "unaturally propped up by political influence and government subsidies." He says that if "such matters were ever brought to President Bush's attention in a serious way he would find in the details of factory farming many things abhorrent to the Christian heart and to his own kindly instincts." Alas Scully worked for him for several years and didn't seem to get the chance bring it up. Meanwhile the president does the bidding of bigtime factory farm polluters.
The dominant strand of conservatism amounts to little more than low tax militarism with a dash of "moral values" thrown in for seasoning. Fortunately the dominant strand isn't the only strand.
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That's interesting because Scully had the cover story on the very same topic in the December 16, 2002 issue of AmCon: http://www.amconmag.com/2002_12_16/12_16.html
That article was instrumental in me abandoning pork and, ultimately, all meat (except fish).
Touchstone Magazine, another outfit with impeccable conservative credentials had an article on the same topic a while back as well: http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=15-02-036-f
I'll keep an eye out for the Scully piece; thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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