The Perils of Animal Agriculture and Why Its Subsidization Must End
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Date
2024
Authors
Veronin, Lauren
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Farmed animals are both the largest group of victims in our legal system and the least represented. Every year, the American animal agricultural industry kills more than eight billion farm animals, emits about 345 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases, and destroys countless ecosystems and habitats on land and in the ocean through pollution and the overconsumption of finite resources. Every year, American taxpayers pay upwards of $38 billion to subsidize this industry and keep it alive. And every year, legislators and government officials make no effort to change this cycle and instead work to ensure it remains as is. This paper will explore the numerous harms associated with animal agriculture, including the environmental damage, the cyclical abuse and torture of farmed animals, and the exploitation of low-income communities and migrant workers. Then, I will attempt to grapple with the difficult question of why our country remains trapped in this counterintuitive cycle. I propose that the most effective (if not inevitably necessary) solution to dismantling the animal agricultural industry is to end the government subsidization that keeps it in place, reallocating agricultural subsidies to transition away from the factory farm model and toward a more sustainable and humane agricultural system.
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Keywords
law, environment, animal rights, civil rights, ethics