3 ms·
But what's the rationale behind keeping meat price low. We know meat can be easily substituted with plant based diet, so no one will starve. Meat processing i
by gingabriska 7y ago
But what's the rationale behind keeping meat price low.
We know meat can be easily substituted with plant based diet, so no one will starve.
Meat processing is also resource intensive (for example, it needs large amount of water).
We need to price in externalities, even the methane gas released by cattles should be calculated and put on the prices of meat as a tax.
- nearbuy 7y agoI don't think the government is really intentionally trying to keep meat prices down. I think it's a side effect of subsidizing crops. I've heard two reasons for subsidizing crops. 1. The government wants the country to be somewhat self-sufficient for food. If, let's say, there was another world war and imports were cut-off, they want to avoid mass starvation. 2. Crop output from a farm will vary from year to year due to weather and other factors. Without subsidies, during a streak of good crop years, production of that crop will exceed demand and the price will drop. This will cause some farms to go bankrupt (the number of farms will decrease until supply matches demand again). If a bad crop year then follows, you'll have shortages. Subsidies can smooth out these inefficiencies cause by weather by keeping farms alive during the good years so we have enough crops during the bad years.