• SexyTimeSasquatch@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Oh man, staple crops are subsidized waaaaaayyy more heavily than beef. Some of this grain goes to the beef industry as feed, so it is indirectly supported by taxes. But the reality is that the soy, barley, beans, or whatever else is in that veggie burger are subsidized directly and more extensively.

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Where in the WORLD did you hear that bit of propaganda?

      https://agriculturefairnessalliance.org/news/2020-farm-subsidies/

      https://scet.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/CopyofFINALSavingThePlanetSustainableMeatAlternatives.pdf

      https://www.aier.org/article/the-true-cost-of-a-hamburger/

      https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/02/usda-livestock-subsidies-near-50-billion-ewg-analysis-finds

      I can't even find any source saying more money is spent on any crop than on beef. It seems like it's totally made up. The numbers vary because it's hard to pin down, but I can't find a source saying anything besides "most subsidiaries go towards beef and dairy"

        • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          I think you should read more carefully what that chart is showing.

          Corn for example is purple and gray mostly.

          Purple = live stock feed gray = biodiesel

          Soy is mostly purple, so most of it goes towards feeding live stock.

          So most of the subsidiary is just being spent to make it cheaper to raise live stock.

          • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Just wanna point out that it's "biodiesel and Industry" specifically because ethanol is added to almost all gas and more.

            Ethanol is trashing engines and producing more waste via dead engines, all while providing jack shit for actual cleaner energy. The corn lobby landed ethanol requirements and it's never going away now that they've found that revenue stream.

        • Windex007@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don't want to speak for them, but one can interpret crops subsidized for the purposes of livestock feed AS a subsidy for livestock. If you look at the sum of the purple sections (livestock and feed), it's the largest.

          But you are right: buddy's own chart does show a larger direct subsidy for corn than direct subsidy for beef.

          • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 year ago

            You are correct, because barely any actually goes to corn we eat. Those subsidies exist just to make it cheaper to raise live stock. So while direct subsidies are higher for corn, it's so high purely to help raise live stock. Just because we "can" eat corn doesn't really impact the fact that we aren't, it's mostly live stock eating the corn the subsidies are paying for (And biofuel)

            • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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              1 year ago

              Yup, here in Iowa the vast, vast majority of corn is known as "cattle corn", and as described it's used for cattle (and biodiesel, and pigs). Most farmers only grow sweetcorn "for fun", as a side thing compared to the huge subsidies for cattle corn.

        • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Pigs and chickens don't eat air, you know.

          70% of US soy becomes animal feed. Some of the rest is used industrially, or becomes biodisel. Relatively little US soy becomes soy sauce, tofu, etc.

          Soy subsidies, in practice, mostly function as a chicken and pork subsidy.

          You'll notice that we heavily subsidize animal feed crops like corn and soy, and spend much less money subsidizing fruits and veggies, nuts, and other legumes like black beans or lentils.

          • Sybil@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Soy subsidies, in practice, mostly function as a chicken and pork subsidy.

            i think there's a case to be made that it's actually a corn subsidy more than chicken or pork.

          • Sybil@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            70% of US soy becomes animal feed.

            almost all soy is pressed for oil. the industrial waste from that process is the vast majority of what is fed to animals.

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Many of those types of crops used for feed aren't really aligned all that well. Corn for instance isn't going used so heavily in a plant-based diet as it is subsidized (corn is the most subsidized crop in the US). There is also separate food-grade and feed-grade soybeans. 90% of US soy production is going to feed (and not to mention a good portion of the other 10% is going to soybean oil which is not super helpful for a plant-based meat)

      90% of U.S. soybeans produced are used as a high-quality protein source for animal feed

      https://soygrowers.com/key-issues-initiatives/key-issues/other/animal-ag/

      Further, they are still getting massive amounts of direct subsidies

      The Department of Agriculture has spent almost $50 billion in subsidies for livestock operators since 1995, according to an EWG analysis.

      By contrast, since 2018 the USDA has spent less than $30 million to support plant-based and other alternative proteins that may produce fewer greenhouse gases and may require less land than livestock.

      https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/02/usda-livestock-subsidies-near-50-billion-ewg-analysis-finds

      Also worth mentioning that beans are not particularly highly subsidized unless you are counting soybeans mentioned earlier.