The Cost of Eating Meat
As someone that's trying very hard to be vegan, or at the very least vegetarian, one of the things that frustrates me the most is the cost of trying to live that veggie life. I hear all the time from people that I talk about veganism to that the cost factor is one of the biggest things stopping them from trying it out. And while many vegans will refute this by saying that it can be super cheap to eat vegan if you just avoid things like artificial meat, at the same time I totally get the other side of it. If I'm at McDonalds, it's significantly cheaper to get a Big Mac than it is to get a veggie burger. And while you can just get a Big Mac with no patties, let's be honest. That's not really the same thing.
But I mean, have you ever really stopped to think about why that is? I mean, let's be realistic here. It's much cheaper to grow black beans than it is to grow a cow. So why is it that it's so much more expensive to eat vegetarian? Let's talk about everyone's favorite subject, politics!
So there's thing thing called subsidies, right? Subsidies are when the government decides that it needs to sprinkle a little bit of cash onto something, for some reason or another. A lot of things get subsidies. Early daycare programs get a lot of money to try and make sure that low income families can afford them. If New York ends up rolling out free public transit, that would be government subsidies. The government is essentially funding programs to make things easier for their citizens. This can be really awesome.
But, I would personally argue, not all subsidies are a good thing. For instance, did you know that the US government gives 38 billion dollars of subsidies to the meat industry? That's about 23ish billion dollars towards specifically livestock subsidies, and another 15ish billion towards just the feed for that livestock. I know big numbers lose their meaning, but for reference the headstart program that feeds kids at schools costs about 12 billion. The whole of the National Science Foundation gets about 30 billion. The entirety of the FBI was about 11 billion. We give meat production in America more money than we give the IRS by more than TRIPLE, which might explain why all these billionaires are getting away without paying their fair share of taxes.
In fact, when you look at both meat and animal feed, those subsidies make up a staggering 63% of all agricultural subsidies total. Contrast that with fruit and vegetable subsidies which come out to about 1.5 billion dollars a year, or somewhere around 4% of the budget.
They do this, of course, because culturally meat is a staple food in western civilization. I've heard from many, many people that without meat it doesn't really feel like a meal. And while that's absolutely bullshit, I also understand that it's hard to combat social norms. But, let's look at the bigger picture here. Right now, every single person's taxes are going towards the ability to keep this meat machine moving. I don't want to get into how frankly awful the animal agriculture industry is, I'm sure you've heard it before. But I think most people, even non-vegans, recognize the atrocities committed against animals for the sake of burgers. And the fact that that system is being propped up by the government because the cost of it is actually just to expensive to exist feels somehow even more wrong to me. Not only are we doing the morally wrong thing, we're literally all paying into the system that's allowing us to do the wrong thing.
If these meat subsidies didn't exist, the cost of meat would be going way up. More so than it already is. The exact percentage is hard to pin down as different animals have different needs, and different sources report things differently, but a 20% increase in the cost of meat is at the low end, and some places think that were subsidies gone that the costs could double, or go even higher for more heavily subsidized industries like beef. This would make meat a luxury good. Something that the rich could still afford, but that the regular folks would have to get as a luxury.
And like, is that a bad thing? Honestly, I get it. I do miss meat. I still cheat sometimes. But I don't think meat needs to be an every day expense. I don't think anyone needs to eat animals every time they want a meal. There are tons of amazing foods out there that don't rely on animal products. In fact, I would argue there's a much bigger variety of options in the veggie column than in the meat one.
Imagine a world where we took away meat subsidies. It's not like that money is all wasted. We could put it towards other kinds of foods. Imagine what would happen if we took all that money going towards meat and put it towards fruits and vegetables. If you want to tackle the fact that America is so unhealthy, that's a great way to start.
Or, if you really want that meaty goodness, maybe you could look at something like lab grown meat. A way where both sides win, people can still eat meat, but also animals stop getting slaughtered en-masse. Right now the annual amount of money the government is giving to researchers on that project is a measly 13ish million dollars. A lot of money, but about ~0.0002% of the money funding meat in the country, for those keeping track. How much do you think we could fast track the growth of that industry if we bumped that up to 1%, or even 2% if we want to go really crazy.
We spend so much money on just keeping the meat industry alive, much to the detriment of so many other things, just because culturally it feels like we have to. But that's the thing, we actually don't have to. We have options. I honestly don't hate a world where you can spend a little extra to have a steak on your birthday. It's not ideal, but it's a HUGE step in the right direction. But what if we could bring down the cost of everyone's food budget by just putting ou money somewhere that makes more sense.
Vegan is expensive as an individual only because the government is spending its money to pretend that meat isn't way more pricey. In reality, vegan food could far far less than the cheapest meat options. But we don't do that, because people are scared of change. Even if it's healthier, better, cheaper, it doesn't matter.
Article written by Tarro (November 2025)
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