[tablespoon]

> the American government spends $38 billion each year to subsidize the meat and dairy industries

What does that work out to per pound of meat output?

[saalweachter]

US meat production is about 100 billion pounds / year, half meat and half poultry. So removing subsidies alone would raise costs by about $0.38/lb, but it may be as much as twice that if subsidies fall primarily on one subsector.

The externalities -- both environmental and the poor labor conditions tolerated in the meat processing industry -- are probably a bigger "subsidy" than the budgetary ones.