Monday, October 27, 2008
This is disturbing.... watch it anyway.
Read after viewing:
Either this type of food production has gone too far, or we are OK with our food being produced this way.
Look, I love burgers, steak, chicken wings, turkey, ham sandwiches, all of it. Does meat have to be produced this way? For it to be cheap and available to the majority of the population, apparently the answer is yes. Well, since when is meat eating a right? Shouldn't the market dictate the price of goods? I just read that governments subsidize meat and dairy heavily (16oz of beef should be $30 approx. - don't quote me on that), to keep them cheap enough for everyone to consume. Is that true? Government intervention seems to distort the market and create negative externalities...
If the government did not subsidize meat and dairy or whatever, and the market dictated the price, what would happen? The price would go up and less people would be able to afford it. Good! Then the demand would go down, supply would go down, and there are other sources of nutrition. Maybe obesity would go down too and diabetes! Who knows.... any ideas?
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1 comment:
A massive problem is that the farm lobby in the US is by far the most powerful lobby in the country. They have a huge ability to protect their interests, and the farm lobby in Europe is also extremely powerful, which together makes each's respective power even greater.
I agree it is absolutely disgusting and it makes you want to become a vegetarian if the only source of meat is produced this way. This is why it is great to support local farms and pay the extra cost. Remember what Kennedy said, that local farms are actually more efficient than factory farms and the only way factory farms can exist economically is through not having to pay for the costs of their pollution.
So I agree, it would be great to have the price of meat reflect the actual cost, it would have so many other benefits, like you mentioned.
Another really scary thing is the rise of huge middle classes in China and India who now for the first time ever want to eat a diet like that of rick, developed nations (ie. meat on a regular basis). Imagine another billion people worth of demand for this kind of meat, it is hideously disturbing and it is impossible to tell them that the world can only afford a few people living like that.
We have gotten so used to this disgusting luxury we have and it is fucking irreversible! How can you get people to voluntarily reduce their standard of living for moral and future environmental reasons. It runs totally against human nature.
Kennedy is on the right track though, allowing the market to work with respect to pollution, animal cruelty, etc. and all of these things is the way to go. We need to price these externalities to get rid of them..
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