They got old Bessie and they got her good! Members of Iowans for Animal Liberation broke into the State Fair sometime Sunday night, broke into where the famed Butter Cow was being stored, doused her in red paint and scrawled their charming note on the glass for everyone to read. Statewide media has been all over this as you would imagine- though the Butter Cow has been safely restored and everything cleaned up already.
Apparently, the vandals/eco-terrorists/liberationists- whatever the hell you want to call them, hid in the building until after it closed and then broke into where the Butter Cow was housed to do the deed... (at least that's what the DM Register is saying) unfortunately, it seems to have amounted to no more than a publicity stunt. People across the state probably took axes to trees and ate red meat slathered in butter when they heard the news (I, sadly, did not- though I will undoubtedly partake of some beef when we get to the State Fair this week.)
It's not clear whether Iowans for Animal Liberation has any connection the Animal Liberation Front- which is sort of what makes this story fascinating to me. One of my undergrad classes that stuck with me was one on the politics of terrorism and we did discuss eco-terrorist groups like the ALF, but here's the catch: they're sort of 'open source' if that's the right term. You go to a website, find a list of suggested acts of vandalism/destruction and if you do it, they'll claim credit on your behalf to publicize it. It's a stark contrast to the decentralizing franchising type of evolution that's going on with groups like Al-Qaeda and it's a model that (at least to me) would seem to be harder to get a grip on. I mean, how do you catch these people? It's not like they're organized in a typical cell structure you can infiltrate and break down as you go.
The whole thing kind of annoys me though. It's not like everybody in the state is a huge fan of massive, corporate agribusiness. Quite the opposite in fact. The local food movement is big, farmer's markets seem to get bigger every years- and there's more organic, sustainable meat out there for purchase by consumers than ever before. It's not a perfect world, I'll grant you- but there are a growing number of consumers out there who are about what they eat and where it comes from. Is it large enough to TKO the big food industry? Not right now- but if you plant enough seeds, something's gonna grow, right?*
The whole 'meat is murder' crowd is just not something I can get behind, I'm sorry. I like steak. Humans are built to be omnivores not herbavores. I'm not going to disagree with anyone's lifestyle choices (except maybe vegans-- how can they give up cheese? Seriously. I tried no carb once on the South Beach Diet and I was irritable, moody and ready to seriously consider shanking a hobo for a crust of bread by the end of the first two weeks. I gotta have bread- but if I had too, I could probably live without it. After a lengthy de-tox of course- but no cheese? I don't want to live in a world without cheese. To me there is no greater culintary pleasure in this world than a freshly baked loaf of bread and a gigantic slice of Stilton to smear on it.)
Either way, seems like an epic fail. Nobody saw the damage and Old Bessie was back to normal before the Fair opened on Monday morning.
*I'm not a huge fan of factory farms but neither am I possessed of the deep pockets necessary to buy all organic, free-range, grass fed meat. I would love nothing more than to live in a world where the organic, free-range, grass fed, sustainable meat was cheaper than the regular stuff but I don't. It ain't cheap to put your money where your mouth is and politically, I prefer pragmatism over fiscal foolishness just to 'eat the right meat.'
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