Ground-up chicken waste fed to cattle may be behind bird flu outbreak in US cows
www.telegraph.co.uk
Experts warn that lax regulations could also see the virus spread to US pig farms, with serious consequences for human health
    • roux [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      If US factory farming wasn’t subsidized by taxpayers’ money the industry wold operate at a loss. The last guy I talked about this said that as it stands, they only make approximately $50 per cow after the cost of feeding and killing them.

      I can’t find the article but I read one once that stated that farmers need to feed beef cattles something like 11 times the amount of calories than what they produce. That’s land being used just to feed cows instead of like cutting back on say, 80% of that land and being able to grow enough plants to feed the entire country

      It’s not that far fetched to say that if we stopped subsidizing the factory farming industry and instead subsidized plant-base ag, we could potentially feed the country for free. I know realistically that wouldn’t even happen because the US government lets manufacturers and retail make up whatever prices they want.

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.netEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        Or at least they’d need to raise the price of beef to its natural equilibrium point, where people would probably decide “I’ll take the vegetarian option” on their own.

        • roux [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          1·
          7 months ago

          I’ve heard a few times that if people were to pay the real price for beef at the store, it would be something like $30 per lb. This is in contrast to the “vegan tax” where plant-based meat substitutes are artificially marked up in price to seem like the more expensive option.