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Plant Milk Is Better For Us and the Climate. So Why Do We Subsidize Dairy?
(www.motherjones.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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It is a hard truth. If it wasn't a hard truth, it wouldn't be the way it is.
No, the reason why it's subsidized is politics, not people's enjoyment of the product.
Mind explaining to me the political reasons it's subsidized? I want these reasons to not be tied to peoples enjoyment of the product at all, mind you...
Because it supports middle rural America and that's where conservative strongholds are.
I've never heard any politician say the subsidies exist because people like it. It's always in support of jobs, etc. Are you daft? Point to one politician or lobbyist claiming subsidies are needed because folks like the flavor.
And even for non conservatives, cutting farmers' income and making them stop producing (even if they produce too much) is a big no no, no matter your political alignment.
...or that they love all the bad health outcomes from drinking milk and consuming massive quantities of cheese.
Are you familiar with the term 'tautology'?
Sometimes you have to tell children twice before they get it through their thick skulls.
Due to freedom of selection, nowhere in the world has a alt-milk market which surpasses that of traditional milk. It's because people prefer traditional milk, and not plant-paste. I'm sorry that I'm having to repeat myself for you to understand, but hey - you can lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink.
If plant/alt milk were more popular, you'd see places where it supplanted traditional milk, but you don't see that literally anywhere in the world. So, it's a hard truth. One that...due to people's confirmation bias, they don't seem to be willing to accept.
There is freedom of selection, but it's not a free market. We're literally discussing that in this post. Milk is substantially cheaper due to subsidies. Many people can't afford to simply purchase the more expensive one when a cheaper version is available. However, in a free market, it wouldn't be that much cheaper.
New products take time to surpass old products. You have false advertising and bad information floating around as truth and people think milk needs to be had to be healthy. It was so heavily advertised to boomers through millennials and even some of gen z, that I'm not surprised many have fallen for the marketing like you so heavily did.
Do you have me confused with someone who has wronged you?
My only response so far was a (admittedly cheeky) reply to your comment about how your reasoning for something being a 'hard truth' is simply because it's the way is...a complete circle, your logic on that one.
You're getting dragged by others because you opened with an objective claim that milk tastes better, which is a subjective opinion. You're now pivoting to argue that cow milk is objectively better because it's more popular? Taylor Swift isn't the best musician because she's popular. Because "best" is incredibly complex. Best guitarist? Composer? Singer? What's best of any of those categories, anyway? We gotta ask Phaedrus, I suppose.
If you're trying to argue that cow milk is the "best": Cow milk is really good at getting protein and other minerals/vitamins to folks. Really good. It's got a lot of properties that make it really useful in some recipes I love. Also I eat a lot of dairy ice cream, and yogurt. I'm not some anti-milk crusader.
Dairy production, however, is really energy- and space-intensive compared to some alternatives. There's a tradeoff to be thought carefully about, and it deserves more than "cow milk is popular therefore it's the best". Unless you're just trying to say that cow milk is popular because cow milk is popular (which no one was arguing?). If that's the case, see my first reply. Circularity complete.
I'm not arguing cow milk is popular because cow milk is popular. I'm arguing that it's popular because it is subjectively better than the alternatives.
Kind of like how dogs are 4 legged animals, but not all 4 legged animals are dogs. Your argument to that is claiming circular reasoning, but it's clearly not.
Subsidies happen because they want to keep the prices low, because it's a popular food item. The majority have chosen it, so that makes it the market leader. They didn't choose it because it was a popular choice. And so inherently that makes it what it is. The defacto best option. Sometimes you have to paint with a broad brush when talking about broad topics.
Fact is, they lack a lot of the subjective properties that make milk as useful as it is. Milk is popular because it's the best. It's not the best because of its popularity. The popularity is simply an easy to understand byproduct of its superiority.
How about actually learning what circular reasoning is.
Cool, the nuance here I can get on board with. Thanks for expanding.