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Neil Sinhababu makes a good point:
If we're going to subsidize the meat industry as heavily as we do (at present, most of the subsidies are for feed grains) the least we could do is concentrate the subsidies on farmers who treat their animals in an ethical way. As it stands, a lot of farmers keep chickens in such cramped conditions that their beaks need to be chopped off to keep them from pecking each other to death, and put pigs in cages so small they can't turn around. These practices should be banned, but there are a number of public policy tools even short of that that will prevent a lot of animal suffering.He also links to polling data showing that 62 percent of Americans support "strict laws concerning the treatment of farm animals." Our brutality to animals caught up in industrial food production is the sort of thing that can only survive because it's far, far, far from the public eye. Putting aside all arguments about vegetarianism, very few people who would defend the practices of factory farming. The argument is one through ignorance, instead. It's won because we ignore the Meatrix:As Neil writes, there are very simple public policy changes that could better the conditions of these animals, and make our food supply chain safer and more healthful. The fact that we not only tolerate, but actually subsidize, practices so few of us would willingly defend is a pretty tremendous indictment of the existing policy.
