Should governments subsidize the meat and dairy industries?
These subsidies are worth questioning from an ethical standpoint and we believe that these ethical concerns should be relevant to government action.
ETHICS INSIDER: ‘The meat and dairy industry, as one of leading sector of the economy, receives huge direct and indirect subsidies from governments in many countries, provoking huge concern because of the impact it has on human health, the environment protection, and on animals right… The amount of subsidy governments pay to meat and dairy industry is striking to many, if not very surprising. According to recent data from Metonomics, the American government spends $38 billion each year to subsidize the meat and dairy industries, but only 0.04 percent of that (i.e., $17 million) each year to subsidize fruits and vegetables…
Subsidizing the dairy and meat production will obviously reduce their price. When the price of something is lower, people tend to consume more of it. This is one of the reasons why meat and other dairy products become a larger share of our daily consumption. The same is true in the European Union, over the last fifty years, there has been an exponential increase in the consumption of animal products. Despite this huge increase in demand these items cost extremely little. This is because of the fact that the dairy industry receives huge amount of subsidies both from the union and member states…
This issue has many ethical implications that concern different aspects of human life, our environment and planet, our health, our culture and way of living as well as our work and livelihoods. It also, more obviously affects, animals in the way they are bred and raised, the suffering they endure and how their life is ended… These subsidies are worth questioning from an ethical standpoint and we believe that these ethical concerns should be relevant to government action.
Whether or not you choose to factor in animal well-being, environmental and public health concerns are already well-established policy areas. Readjusting subsidies would change the incentives in the agricultural industry would still leave a certain amount of freedom in both production and consumption but would simply favour a more ethical and sustainable system which would benefit citizens’ health and their living environment. It seems clear that changing the subsidy system is an ethical imperative. SOURCE…
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