We’ve be hearing a lot lately about our country’s economic woes and the $700 billion federal bailout that was recently signed into law by President Bush to bolster our nation’s financial institutions. As usual, agribusiness was engaged and working to garner public support for its own special projects. The federal bailout included a fifty cent per gallon tax credit to help Tyson Foods and ConocoPhillips turn animal fat into diesel fuel, but the meat and oil companies had hoped to keep the subsidy at one dollar per gallon. The lesser subsidy led a Tyson company spokesperson to complain that their fat to diesel project may not remain economically viable.

The sad reality is that our current meat based factory farming system is wasteful and expensive, and it wouldn’t be profitable were it not for the billions of tax dollars that go toward supporting it.  The nation now faces economic hardships born of greed, excess and a lack of government oversight aimed at protecting the public good.  The animal farming industry, which has fleeced tax payers for decades, not only bears part of the blame, but is predicated upon the same irresponsible, narrow minded principles that gave rise to our economic crisis.