"It shows up three times a day, on your plate. The U.S. spends over $30 billion annually on agricultural subsidies. Most support corn and soy, crops that become livestock feed, not food for people. U.S. meat is artificially cheap, which has locked us into a high-emissions food system. It's the highway funding of food: a policy choice that induces demand and reinforces path dependency."
"Going car-free saves about 4.6 metric tons of CO2 every year. That's significant. It's also hard to do. You need to live near transit, accept longer trips, and organize your life around infrastructure that may not exist yet. Consider food. Shifting from a typical U.S. diet to eating meat a few times a week saves 1.5 to 2 tons of CO2 per year. That's half as impactful as ditching the car. You can start tomorrow. No capital campaign. No city council to persuade."
Policy and subsidies shape consumption patterns in both transportation and food systems through induced demand. The United States spends over $30 billion annually on agricultural subsidies, primarily for corn and soy that become livestock feed rather than direct human food. Cheap meat resulting from those subsidies has entrenched a high-emissions food system. Going car-free reduces about 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year, while shifting to eating meat only a few times per week saves roughly 1.5 to 2 tons annually. Producing 100 grams of beef protein emits far more CO2 than plant-based proteins, and the global food system produces about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Read at Streetsblog
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