Clark Wolf is the host and organizer. The panel—on food and politics—includes me, talking about my memoir, Slow Cooked, An Unexpected Life in Food Politics; Chloe Sorvino, author of Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat; Alex Prud’homme, author of Dinner With The President: Food, Politics and the History of Breaking Bread at the White House; and Tanya Holland, author of Tanya Holland’s California Soul. Free, but register here. It starts at 5:00 p.m. and lasts one hour.
by Marion Nestle
Apr
13
2022
USDA subsidies for animal agriculture
If you want to understand why it’s so difficult to change meat consumption patterns, try the Environmental Working Group’s latest analysis: USDA has spent nearly $50 billion on livestock subsidies since 1995.
From 1995 to 2021, USDA spent
- $11 billion on livestock disaster assistance
- $14.2 billion on livestock commodity purchases
- ~$5 billion in dairy subsidies
- $15 billion in payments to offset the effects of the pandemic
In addition, USDA paid $160 billion during those years to producers of the corn and soybeans used to feed those animals.
In contrast, USDA spent less than $30 million to promote plant-based proteins since 2018.
The numbers say it all.
Policy change, anyone?