5 ms·

And meat is heavily subsidized by the government. It's insanity and corruption.

RhysU 6mo ago
In the US agricultural subsidies for 2024 were overwhelmingly for corn ($3.2B), soybeans ($1.9B), cotton ($998M), and wheat ($960M). Pasture comes in 5th ($741M). https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-data-says/ https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-da... Tofu and ethanol may be more price-distorted by the US government than is beef, but I dunno how to quickly support that idea with hard data beyond what I cited above.
- datsci_est_2015 6mo ago
  Have you been to the Midwest to observe the scale of corn and soybean operations? I would wager the number of calories per dollar subsidy produced by the corn and soybean industries outweighs handily the calories per dollar subsidy produced by cattle operations, especially given the 10% reduction in efficiency per trophic level. Also, how much does beef benefit from cheap feed prices (corn and soy) due to subsidies as well?
  - RhysU 6mo ago
    Beef prices are high right now. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000703112 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000703112 If the intent of the government is to pour subsidies into domestic beef production to stabilize prices they're doing a crap job. Compare corn: https://www.macrotrends.net/2532/corn-prices-historical-chart-data https://www.macrotrends.net/2532/corn-prices-historical-char...
- stvltvs 6mo ago
  Depending on how we measure it, either 58% or 75% of that heavily subsidized soy goes to feed animals. https://insideanimalag.org/share-of-soybean-crop-for-feed/ https://insideanimalag.org/share-of-soybean-crop-for-feed/
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- shafyy 6mo ago
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  - Ferret7446 6mo ago
    I thought most of the corn goes to ethanol
    - RhysU 6mo ago
      A little over a third of production evidently goes to ethanol: https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 No idea if subsidies disproportionately subsidize fuel ethanol over non-fuel usage.
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RhysU 6mo ago

In the US agricultural subsidies for 2024 were overwhelmingly for corn ($3.2B), soybeans ($1.9B), cotton ($998M), and wheat ($960M). Pasture comes in 5th ($741M). https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-data-says/ https://usafacts.org/articles/federal-farm-subsidies-what-da... Tofu and ethanol may be more price-distorted by the US government than is beef, but I dunno how to quickly support that idea with hard data beyond what I cited above.

datsci_est_2015 6mo ago
Have you been to the Midwest to observe the scale of corn and soybean operations? I would wager the number of calories per dollar subsidy produced by the corn and soybean industries outweighs handily the calories per dollar subsidy produced by cattle operations, especially given the 10% reduction in efficiency per trophic level. Also, how much does beef benefit from cheap feed prices (corn and soy) due to subsidies as well?
- RhysU 6mo ago
  Beef prices are high right now. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000703112 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000703112 If the intent of the government is to pour subsidies into domestic beef production to stabilize prices they're doing a crap job. Compare corn: https://www.macrotrends.net/2532/corn-prices-historical-chart-data https://www.macrotrends.net/2532/corn-prices-historical-char...
stvltvs 6mo ago
Depending on how we measure it, either 58% or 75% of that heavily subsidized soy goes to feed animals. https://insideanimalag.org/share-of-soybean-crop-for-feed/ https://insideanimalag.org/share-of-soybean-crop-for-feed/
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shafyy 6mo ago
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- Ferret7446 6mo ago
  I thought most of the corn goes to ethanol
  - RhysU 6mo ago
    A little over a third of production evidently goes to ethanol: https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10339 No idea if subsidies disproportionately subsidize fuel ethanol over non-fuel usage.
- deleted 6mo ago
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