Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
our tax dollars at work
taxpayers are unknowingly subsidizing factory farms that benefit
from artificially low prices for grains used as feed for industrially
raised farmed animals.
basically, when the price of grain is lower
than its production cost, much of that difference is paid to grain
farmers in the form of government subsidies that taxpayers cover.
factory farms then buy grain at the unnaturally low market price,
making their irresponsible and welfare-unfriendly practices even
more profitable.
below are the payouts, averaged from subsidies
paid from 1997 to 2005.
avg annual
avg annual
avg reduction
avg annual
sector
subsidy per subsidy per large
in cost of
subsidy
factory farm
factory farm
production
chickens
$1,250,000,000
$766,000
n/a
13%
(raised for
meat)
dairy
$733,000,000
$233,000
$588,000
6%
eggs
$432,000,000
$388,000
n/a
13%
beef
$500,000,000
$72,000
$2,200,000
5%
(feedlotted)
pigs
$945,000,000
$325,000
$5,010,000
15%
total
$3,860,000,000
If those subsidies were taken away, animal products in general
would become more expensive, and it is likely that less meat, eggs,
and milk would be bought as a result—a positive outcome for our
health, economy, environment, and the animals themselves. In
addition, if corn were not subsidized by the government, higher
welfare products like grass-fed beef would become more economi-
cally competitive in the market with beef from cattle confined on
feedlots—another way of giving consumers a fair alternative.
This all would be good for farmed animals. Grazing animals,
such as cows and steers, have not naturally evolved to eat high-
energy foods like corn. Though it may force them to reach slaughter
