Federal Subsidies Enable Disease
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Federal subsidies now mostly reward large farms for planting monocultures of corn, soybeans, wheat and rice. Much of that food goes to factory farms, where tightly packed animals provide a breeding ground for infectious diseases and produce vast quantities of waste that poses an environmental hazard. The current system devours fossil fuels, depletes the soil and pollutes waterways. It also makes high-sugar foods and beef artificially cheap, contributing to the obesity and diabetes epidemic.
Source: Scientific American “A Political Wish List”
Brilliant synopsis of how our tax dollars in the form of subsidies undermine the entire system. The other piece here is that the system you describe is incredibly WATER-intensive: factory farming requires ~5000 gallons of water to make 1 pound of beef, if my memory serves me correctly. These subsidies make us abuse our water supply on top of the impact on the actual waterways from pig feces etc. Thank you for this brief summary of what is wrong with subsidies!