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US livestock subsidies are in dozens of billions. Whole sector seems to have revenue in lower hundreds of billions (harder to get exact data, please correct me)

by Nowado 4y ago

US livestock subsidies are in dozens of billions. Whole sector seems to have revenue in lower hundreds of billions (harder to get exact data, please correct me). Even without premiums target audience is willing to accept, subsidies of 10-20% of sector revenue are pretty hard to beat.

gadders 4y ago
Is there any part of agriculture that isn't subsidised?
belorn 4y ago
From the first google search on US farmland subsidies: " Who Benefits Most From Farm Subsidies? Farm subsidies don't benefit all farms equally. According to the Cato Institute, farmers of corn, soybeans, and wheat receive more than 70% of farm subsidies. These are also usually the largest farms. From an other source: "Corn growers received the most product-specific assistance with $2.2 billion in subsidies. That was only about 4.4% of the $50.4 billion in total corn production that year. Soybeans rank second in subsidies. While the US soybean industry produced $41.3 billion worth of products in 2017, it received $1.6 billion in subsidies in 2016, representing 3.9% of production. The US sugar industry produced $2.5 billion worth of product in 2017 and received $1.6 billion in subsidies, according to the report. The support amounted to 63.5% of the value of total production." - https://www.thoughtco.com/us-farm-subsidies-3325162 https://www.thoughtco.com/us-farm-subsidies-3325162 - https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-data-says/ https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-da...
j-pb 4y ago
Same in the E.U. we have billions of subsidies for milk and meat. Many countries like germany also have a tiered VAT system, where basic foods are taxed lower, there is a base line tax and some luxury items are taxed higher. Thanks to lobbying meat and cow-milk are taxed as basic foods, while vegan alternatives are taxed as luxury items.
- hobom 4y ago
  That is not true. All food in the supermarket is taxed the same.
- jslql 4y ago
  Meat and milk are basic foods.
  - colinsane 4y ago
    if these things are to be basic, then what constitutes a non “basic” food?
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    Traditional or basic? Meat wasn't a staple food 100 years ago, it was too expensive for regular people. Same with milk, if you didn't own a cow, you just didn't drink it. You drank some sort of ale.
    - diydsp 4y ago
      And their livestock werent perpetuately pregnant. They made abt 1/10th the milk they do know.
    - acdha 4y ago
      My grandfather was a kid at the end of the Great Depression. One of the stories which blew my mind growing up was that he ate beef basically twice a year, when his cousins on a small dairy farm culled the herd. His mother kept chickens, so they had eggs - to the point that as an adult he never eats them because he got sick of them by the time he graduated from high school.
      - theshrike79 4y ago
        Yep, (western) people are acting like meat is a human right and a staple day to day food. My grandparents were the first generation in my country who started to have regular access to meat after WW2. Before that it was either a rare thing and much of the "meat" they ate was offal. Pea soup was 99% peas and a small chunk of smoked meat added for flavour. Meanwhile billions of people live perfectly normal lives eating legumes (beans, chickpeas, peanuts) for protein.
ptero 4y ago
There are huge non-livestock farming subsidies as well, both in the US and in the EU. Farming is not directly driven by supply, demand and price the people are willing to pay (because without food people riot).
scantis 4y ago
Well meat profits most from subsedies since it is the last in the chain. I think it is not as simple, we would throw a lot more food away without our animals. Sure there is room to optimize and improvement. The city of Wien has an overproduction of fresh baking good that exceeds three times the needed amout. It is then reprocessed to animal food instead of being thrown away, which is a good thing but keeps prices down. So not as simple as one would think...

by Nowado 4y ago

gadders 4y ago

Is there any part of agriculture that isn't subsidised?

belorn 4y ago

From the first google search on US farmland subsidies: " Who Benefits Most From Farm Subsidies? Farm subsidies don't benefit all farms equally. According to the Cato Institute, farmers of corn, soybeans, and wheat receive more than 70% of farm subsidies. These are also usually the largest farms. From an other source: "Corn growers received the most product-specific assistance with $2.2 billion in subsidies. That was only about 4.4% of the $50.4 billion in total corn production that year. Soybeans rank second in subsidies. While the US soybean industry produced $41.3 billion worth of products in 2017, it received $1.6 billion in subsidies in 2016, representing 3.9% of production. The US sugar industry produced $2.5 billion worth of product in 2017 and received $1.6 billion in subsidies, according to the report. The support amounted to 63.5% of the value of total production." - https://www.thoughtco.com/us-farm-subsidies-3325162 https://www.thoughtco.com/us-farm-subsidies-3325162 - https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-data-says/ https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-da...

j-pb 4y ago

Same in the E.U. we have billions of subsidies for milk and meat. Many countries like germany also have a tiered VAT system, where basic foods are taxed lower, there is a base line tax and some luxury items are taxed higher. Thanks to lobbying meat and cow-milk are taxed as basic foods, while vegan alternatives are taxed as luxury items.

hobom 4y ago
That is not true. All food in the supermarket is taxed the same.
jslql 4y ago
Meat and milk are basic foods.
- colinsane 4y ago
  if these things are to be basic, then what constitutes a non “basic” food?
- theshrike79 4y ago
  Traditional or basic? Meat wasn't a staple food 100 years ago, it was too expensive for regular people. Same with milk, if you didn't own a cow, you just didn't drink it. You drank some sort of ale.
  - diydsp 4y ago
    And their livestock werent perpetuately pregnant. They made abt 1/10th the milk they do know.
  - acdha 4y ago
    My grandfather was a kid at the end of the Great Depression. One of the stories which blew my mind growing up was that he ate beef basically twice a year, when his cousins on a small dairy farm culled the herd. His mother kept chickens, so they had eggs - to the point that as an adult he never eats them because he got sick of them by the time he graduated from high school.
    - theshrike79 4y ago
      Yep, (western) people are acting like meat is a human right and a staple day to day food. My grandparents were the first generation in my country who started to have regular access to meat after WW2. Before that it was either a rare thing and much of the "meat" they ate was offal. Pea soup was 99% peas and a small chunk of smoked meat added for flavour. Meanwhile billions of people live perfectly normal lives eating legumes (beans, chickpeas, peanuts) for protein.

ptero 4y ago

There are huge non-livestock farming subsidies as well, both in the US and in the EU. Farming is not directly driven by supply, demand and price the people are willing to pay (because without food people riot).

scantis 4y ago

Well meat profits most from subsedies since it is the last in the chain. I think it is not as simple, we would throw a lot more food away without our animals. Sure there is room to optimize and improvement. The city of Wien has an overproduction of fresh baking good that exceeds three times the needed amout. It is then reprocessed to animal food instead of being thrown away, which is a good thing but keeps prices down. So not as simple as one would think...