In 2008 and 2009, the US Farm Service Agency lent nearly US$30 million to factory hog and poultry farms to build or expand their facilities in the state of Missouri alone.

However, with pork supply greater than demand, the government spent US$55 million in taxpayer's dollars re-purchasing surpluses as of May 2009, with the pork producers asking for an additional US$100 million for projected losses.

Voice of Glen Koroluk – Beyond Factory Farming, Canada (M): There’s big promises made that these barns would just revitalize a region and a community, and bring in all these jobs, etc. That hasn’t happened.

Glen Koroluk (M): There’s a 10-15% mortality rate in hog barns because of the confined way they live. So the jobs didn’t materialize and communities didn’t grow and prosper, and in fact, instead of providing benefits, they extracted wealth from communities.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai
Washington, D.C., USA – November 8, 2009

Supreme Master Ching Hai : We are the ones who are paying the industry to continue producing this problem, producing meat, fish and the like, with our hard earned tax money that’s used to subsidize them. Ironic?

And all the while, we are suffering from illness; losing lives, grieving over lost loved ones, family members; losing happiness; losing money due to the animal diet.

The government could, of course, redirect the billions of dollars now spent on livestock subsidies to help farmers switch to organic vegetable and fruit agriculture. The government could use its powerful tools to spread campaigns about veg alternatives, bans on meat, and laws to help people switch to organic, vegan farming and consumption. A global switch to a veg diet could even save the world governments a lot of money, as much as 80% of all the climate mitigation costs of US$40 trillion by year 2050. That is, we save US$32 trillion in climate mitigation costs, and having a healthy vegan population, is a good deal, good business deal in all positive aspects.