We are 608 days from the 2020 presidential election and the campaign-media complex is already groaning into gear. Just the thought of it makes me tired. This is particularly the case when I reflect on the recent headlines around candidate Cory Booker's veganism.

Sen. Booker did a lengthy interview with VegNews, the California-based magazine and website, in which he was asked about his vegan lifestyle and how it might figure into how he would govern. His response initially, I thought was canny and well rehearsed: That his dietary choices are a personal preference and nobody wants the government or any governing official "pushing" their choices.

Can't argue with that.

The interview went on, however, and Booker went all-in on a series of talking points that fuel vegan/vegetarian politics and drive the marketing behind plant-based foods of all kinds: The meat industry is destroying the environment, Smithfield Foods' Chinese ownership and Smithfield's exports to China are nothing but an example of how that country is "offshoring" its pollution to the U.S., food production corporations are destroying the social fabric of rural America and only small farmers take proper care of the soil and the animals.

These lines of thought, I think, would very much influence a Pres. Booker's way of governing. To me, if it's not exactly an example of "pushing" a vegan diet on the electorate, well, it sure lights the way.

Booker is just one of an embarrassment of riches of Democratic hopefuls for the 2020 election. Chances are he won't still be standing come Election Day, although it's too early to place bets on who will. Whoever the final horses are in the race, and whatever they eat for dinner, voters deserve better than information fed only a vegan diet.

Politics at the dinner table

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