Reducing meat consumption might be achieved by a mix of education, taxes, subsidies for plant-based foods and changes to school and workplace menus, the scientists said.
Based solely on the USDA’s national average farm-gate price and national average costs of production, Clark says American dairy farmers lost money every year from 2005 to 2016. This seems incredibly complex though, when you start to consider things like margin protections and exporting, right? How do you reduce subsidies without financially wrecking dairy farmers, and without causing an upheaval to the dairy customs of the average consumer? (Which is kind of the point in the long run...)USDA data reveals that for more than a decade, U.S. farm gate prices for milk fail to cover costs of production.”
It is incredibly complex. It's an aspect of our ostensibly-capitalist, occasionally-socialist economy. You don't move away from that overnight, for sure. I try to limit my beef to once a week. It ain't hard. It encourages you to eat better beef. Better beef costs more and is more profitable. Everybody wins. Talk America into eating less, better beef and we all end up happy. Theoretically the dairy industry earned $104b in revenue in 2014. If we are to believe the Canucks, the taxpayer underwrote $70b of that. The "Got Milk?" campaign cost $23m a year... imagine what even a billion a year in outreach to oh, I dunno, every other less impactful agricultural product in the US might do?
We've cut down on the meat too. I'll make one beef meal a week as well, usually lasts two nights so that's all good - but I've made some more vegetarian dishes as a result of cutting it back, which is always nice. Increasing my skill in the kitchen and reducing the beef consumption. It's impressive how quickly those changes can become normal; we use reusable bags for groceries, recycle everything we can at the local recycling unit down the road, eating less meat, I walk to work now and my car only gets used when I'm heading out of town.
We've been on a mostly-poultry diet for years, with some pork. Red meat of any kind is a few-times-a-year thing. I'd do more fish but my wife doesn't like it :/ Meanwhile, I'm yet to find a vegetarian meal that doesn't cause a blood sugar crash a couple hours later. Do they not do pick-up recycling where you are? We have a trashcan-sized bin that we wheel to the curb every two weeks.
That's not bad then. Still, I'm surprised, as I feel like that's something big cities do here too (although I've never lived in one, so can't confirm that).
What about mixing farm-grown meats with lab-grown ones? If we consume both it might reduce the risk of running out of organic products. At the same time, we also have to train ourselves to eat more green leafy vegetables. This way, we could avoid consuming all of the earth's resources and still eat healthy, right?