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Supply Management, Parity Prices, and Ecological Thinking as the Foundation for a Practical Agriculture System
Iowa dairy farmer Dan Beard. Photo courtesy of Practical Farmers of Iowa
How the Lack of Parity Supports Industrial Livestock Production
The end of parity pricing and supply management farm programs was a huge boon for agribusiness, particularly the meat industry. As the farm programs were dismantled, farmer grain prices fell to well under the cost of production, giving the meatpacking industry access to below-cost feed grain. Cheap feed was – and still is – a critical component of industrial confinement-based meat production.
