The news these days features plenty of protests, but it’s been a while since widespread protests have targeted agriculture. Nobody seems to be worrying much about GMOs, dead honeybees, chickens in cages, sows in crates, or cows burping greenhouse gases.

Instead, political partisans are threatening revolution, anti-maskers are coughing on the COVID-cautious, Black Lives Matter protesters are clashing with the Thin Blue Line, and Antifa wants to take over Seattle for some unknown reason.

It’s hard to predict what cause might capture the public’s attention next, but I doubt people will ever run out of reasons to protest. Even if we have nothing important to complain about, we come up with a cause.

For instance, my own history as a protester includes membership in the Society for the Restoration and Preservation of Red M&Ms (SRPRM&Ms). Today, with the proliferation of multicolored M&Ms, many people are not aware that Mars Inc. unfairly eliminated red M&Ms in the mid-1970s.

Red dye No. 2 was suspected to be the cause of cancer in rats, so the company quit making red M&Ms to avoid consumer concerns, even though they never used that particular dye in the first place. Eventually, under ongoing pressure from the SRPRM&Ms, Mars once again began making red M&Ms in 1987. You’re welcome.

While sometimes the things we complain about are downright frivolous, there’s no question that many issues we’re grappling with today are deadly serious. I certainly don’t condone mayhem and destruction in the name of protest, but I do consider the right to protest to be an important part of the messy business of democracy.

That’s not to say every protest is justified, or that people should express themselves by trampling on the rights of other people. But the righteousness of a cause can be hard to judge without the perspective of time.

Consider the Boston Tea Party, when angry vandals threw 92,000 pounds of tea into the harbor. At the time, even George Washington condemned the destruction of private property, but now the event is seen as an important step in the colonists’ struggle for self-governance.

On the other hand, Ku Klux Klan members who protested against voting rights for Black people were certainly on the wrong side of history. And there have been times when protest campaigns have pushed policies too far.

Prohibition might have seemed like the solution to the poverty and family misery caused by alcoholism, but after temperance crusaders succeeded in outlawing alcohol, the country suffered from a rise in violent, organized crime as an unintended consequence.

It’s impossible to predict where the current wave of protests will take this country, but I’m concerned this contentious election could lead to even more violent protests. Both Republicans and Democrats have hinted they’ll protest results if their side doesn’t win.

If I thought our election system was corrupt, I’d be protesting myself. But I’ve worked as a poll worker for many years, and I’ve seen the bipartisan checks and balances that are built into our system locally. I’m confident similar safeguards are in place elsewhere, as well.

Maybe the politicians are just posturing to prevent the other side from perpetrating any fraud, but God help us if we see widespread protests of election results simply because protesters don’t like the winner.

I’d take a nice animal rights rally over that any day.