The meat industry is a powerful economic & political force. Besides spending million of its own dollars to promote meat-eating, it has also secured an unfair share of our tax dollars. Because the the meat production process is so wasteful, inefficient, and costly, the industry must be subsidized to survive. Most people are unaware of how heavily our federal government supports the meat industry with grants, favorable loan guarantees, and purchases of its surplus products, which are often just destroyed.
Just one example is the National School Lunch Program, started in 2003. The program was created with two official purposes: To provide healthy meals to children regardless of income, and to subsidize agribusiness by “shoring up demand for beef”.
The Federal Government purchases more than $800 million worth of mostly meat & dairy products for the National School Lunch Program annually and although it is supposed to purchase ALL farm products, it tends to purchase in direct response to lobbying. In 2001, the USDA spent $350 million on surplus beef & other meat products for schools – more than double what was spent on fruits & vegetables (most of which were canned or frozen).
Jennifer Raymond, a school nutritionist who has worked with many schools to develop healthier menus, states, ”Basically, it’s a welfare program for suppliers… It’s a price support program for agricultural producers, and the schools are simply a way to get rid of the items that have been purchased.” By the way, the money to run this ”welfare program” comes out of our tax dollars.
Plus, because of unhealthy, meat-centric school meals, our society is now battling such previously rare problems as childhood obesity, and Type II diabetes.
And speaking of our tax dollars, more tax dollars go down the drain in the form of millions the US spends on the little-publicized problem of animal diseases. When diseased animals are destroyed, the our government pays the owners an indemnity. A New York Times article called this subsidy “outrageous,” characterizing it as “a scandalous steal out of the public treasury.” No other industry gets paid for their tainted goods! Yep, outrageous.
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Breakfast: Waffle-fest at work yesterday!
Lunch: Mac & cheese, salad, and an orange
Dinner: Wild mushrooms (shitake, portobello, enoki and white mushrooms), bean sprouts, and tofu sautéed with soy-garlic sauce
