Where Are the Conservatives for Healthier Food?

I'm fairly new to my interest in healthier food. For years, I heard about organic food and had no interest. Why? Because eating organic food has always been painted as the "environmentally friendly" thing to do. As a conservative, I don't have an extreme affinity for the environment; I put the interests of people over whether pesticides are used or whether animals have room to move about in their pens. I don't even believe in global warming or "climate change" as people are now calling it. While I don't have an interest in eating organic or local for any environmental reasons, I am concerned about my health. Many of the people that I see on the Internet that support healthier food have a left-leaning political mindset. Why aren't conservatives more interested in healthier food? I think that there is a lot of common ground that we could share, if we thought about it more.

Health vs. the Environment

One of the reasons, I think, that many conservatives really don't show a great deal of interest in organic food is the way that it is packaged by the proponents of organic food. For years, I've heard "buy organic; pesticides are bad for the environment." Who cares? As a conservative on a limited budget, I have a lot better things to do with my money than spend extra in order to help the environment. Besides, don't pesticides help farmers get better crop yields? What's wrong with that? If hormones help the cows grow bigger, why wouldn't I want to give them to the cows? It is only in the last year, when I've been going out of my way to listen to people talk about how much healthier grass-fed beef and pasture-raised poultry is, that I've decided that organic is the better way to go. There is scientific data to prove that animals and crops that are grown organically have more nutrients and are healthier; why don't people capitalize on that more? I bet that more conservatives could be won over if you would emphasize the health benefits.

Food Freedom

Conservatives could be won over in the area of food freedom too. Conservatives love freedom. We don't want people telling us how to live our lives. So why does the government restrict people from buying raw milk? States all over the country make it illegal, or at least difficult, to obtain this product that contains living nutrients and many people swear by. There are those who think that raw milk is dangerous, but they don't have to drink it, do they? I think that this is a battle that conservatives could be easily won over with. Let the raw milk be sold alongside the pasteurized milk and give people the choice. If some people get sick (and I personally don't think that many would, and people get sick with pasteurized milk too), shouldn't we have the freedom to do so?

The conservatives are likely to part ways with many of the health-food establishment when it comes to making laws that would force farmers to farm a certain way, force people to eat healthy, or force fast food restaurants to serve healthy fare. We want to have the freedom to eat garbage if we wish to. If the healthy food was available along with the conventional and processed food, then we could all get what we wanted.

Honesty?

This is an issue that I'm not sure that you could win conservatives over with, but I think that it's a great idea. I don't mind having a little more honesty in the food debate. Perhaps we could warn people more about how dangerous aspartame is, or what kinds of chemicals are in the foods we eat? What are the "animal byproducts" in pet food anyway? Do you really want to know how they make vegetable oil? Why is the base of the food pyramid full of grains, when that's not always the best diet for everyone? Could it be because so many people from the food industry sit on that board? My Glenn Beck loving friends and I might remember that "honesty" is one of the values and principals from the 9-12 project, so you might be able to win some of us over on that one.

Again, I don't say regulate away the unhealthy garbage foods, but I think that if people read about how some of this stuff is made, they might choose more natural, healthy foods. The other day, my husband bought some garlic that you can squeeze out of a bottle. My first thought was "why not use regular garlic?" He showed me the ingredients, which were pretty much garlic and soy lecithin. Soy lecithin is extracted from soybeans using hexane. Yummy. I think I'll just use my garlic press to squeeze the natural garlic, thank you. It's not that hard.

Source:

Personal research over the last year on the subject.

"What's Happening With Real Milk?" Realmilk.com.

Zuaro, Kara. "Is Soy Lecithin Bad for You?" Chow.com, 28 August 2007.