I haven't yet written my article about meat because there's so much to read.  But reading Michael Pollan's (he's one of better known "meat" authors) quote on Sam's wall made me smile.  Here's the quote if you haven't seen it yet:

“Why is it you can buy a double cheeseburger at McDonalds for 99 cents and you can’t even get a head of broccoli for 99 cents? We’ve skewed our food system to the bad calories and it’s not an accident. The reason those calories are cheaper are because those are the ones we are heavily subsidizing. This is directly tied to the kind of agriculture that we are practicing and the farm policies we have. All those snack food calories are the ones that come from the commodity crops, from the wheat, from the corn and from the soybeans. By making those calories really cheap, that is the reason why the biggest predictor of obesity is income level.” 

- Michael Pollan 
And of course, I agree with Mr. Pollan.  Oh, and let's think about the last sentence some more.  Do you think poor people eat fast food just because it's cheap?  Haha, there's another dimension about fast food industry you should know.  Here's what I learned from Vice President of Marketing at Telemundo & NBC (yes, he was my teacher) -

"Fast food companies specifically target lower income families.  But how?  It's not as if they have shows for lower income families.  (class is silent).  They achieve their goal by targeting Latino and African American populations.  Is it legal?  you bet."   

They're being bombarded with messages telling them to eat fast food!  Another target market often sought out by fast food companies, besides young men, is children.  96% of children in America can identity Ronald McDonald, making him the second most recognizable figure amongst children (first is Santa Claus).  Did you ever wonder why McDonald's used such a cartoonish character to advertise?  Along with happy meals and their playgrounds, it should be clear whom they're trying to market!

One more scary thought:  Surely many of you heard about increasing cases of precocious puberty (early puberty).  Well, no one is sure why, but you can be sure that there are lots and lots of growth hormones being pumped into our meats, especially poultry.  What happens when children eat growth-hormone pumped meat?  Who knows.  Oh, and children living near factory farms tend to have 2-4 times more asthma than the regular populations, which means many of animals probably have some kind of respiratory dysfunction.  What happens if we eat that meat?  Who knows.  Are asthma levels increasing or decreasing amongst children?  Isn't it a scary thought?

Oh, and by the way, if farmers, or, corporations (since there are virtually no family farms left) had to pay water bills at the rate we did, the true price of burgers would be closer to 20 dollars.  Oh and lobbyists control government subsidies all the time.  GM successfully lobbied the Eisenhower administration to build massive interstate freeways (true price of cars includes costs to build and maintain the road).  Whether this is good or bad, is up to you to decide.  Whether farming subsidies are good or bad, is also your choice.  We're all paying for it one way or another.