Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Reports
The American Prospect
, “Halfway
out the flat and arid Oklahoma panhandle,
Texas County used to raise wheat, hay,
cattle, and some—not many—hogs. In 1995,
Seaboard Farms moved in to set up a giant
pork slaughterhouse with more than $60
million in direct subsidies and tax breaks. To
supply the plant, Seaboard set up hundreds
of giant metal barns, each containing nearly
1,000 hogs. Texas County now raises more
than a million hogs annually. Seaboard
produces as much sewage as the city of
Philadelphia, and it sits in open-air lagoons,
some as large as 14 acres and as deep as
25 feet. Neighbors complain of intolerable
stench, and everybody worries about water
pollution.”
10
weight faster, which is a benefit for agribusiness, such unnatural
diets have well-documented negative effects on the animals' di-
gestive system and their overall health.
Eliminating subsidies that benefit industrial animal agribusi-
ness would even benefit developing countries that currently strug-
gle to compete with our cheap, subsidized food, which is being
dumped into their markets and is destroying local indigenous agri-
culture industries that simply cannot compete on price. These are
just some of the many immediate positive ripple effects that would
occur from ending our agricultural subsidies. Yes, some animal-
based food prices will rise, but the goal of our agricultural system
should be more than simply producing cheap food below their true
market costs, but also producing food ethically and sustainably.
