Emmy Award-Winning Journalist Calls On Elon Musk To Cut Animal Agriculture Subsidies

Emmy Award-winning journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell has called Elon Musk to cut US factory farming subsidies in order to save money and promote health.

Velez-Mitchell noted that the yet-to-be-passed Farm Bill features “massive subsidies” to the industrial animal agriculture sector and that cutting them would represent a “significant opportunity” for both cost savings and intervention in the country’s “growing health crisis.”

In addition to her work as a journalist, Velez-Mitchell is the founder of UnchainedTV, an animal rights-focused nonprofit streaming network. Writing about the topic for UnchainedTV, she urged other people to write to Musk and provided a petition-style template email.

“Taxpayers should not be providing corporate welfare to multinational corporations that emit more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined and whose products harm our health, increase healthcare costs, and put the public at risk of deadly zoonotic disease outbreaks,” says the email. It also describes farming subsidy cuts as “obvious and sensible.”

Subsidized agribusinesses perpetuate ‘an uneven playing field’

Photo shows a row of cows packed closely behind a concrete and metal fence — Adobe Stock Elon Musk would save billions if he cut funding for factory farming

Newly re-elected President Trump seeks to reduce federal spending and has launched The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – overseen by Musk – to do so. DOGE’s activities so far have met with lawsuits, chaos, and accusations of errors and exaggeration.

Meanwhile, the US spends an approximate yearly average of $20 billion on agricultural subsidies or direct farm program payments. The majority of these subsidies go to animal farms, and 99 percent of all livestock animals raised in the US are factory-farmed.

“Lobbyists representing the animal agriculture industry have long played a pivotal role in shaping the Farm Bill, investing tens of millions of dollars to influence lawmakers,” explained Velez-Mitchell. “Data from 2019 shows that the wealthiest one percent of farm operators received nearly a quarter of total subsidies, while the top ten percent garnered nearly two-thirds. Small, independent farms often struggle to compete against these heavily subsidized agribusinesses, perpetuating an uneven playing field.”

A Congressional Research Report from 2024 predicted a 10-year baseline projection of $1.36 trillion for animal agriculture subsidies. Subsidies keep the price of animal products artificially low, instead of promoting nutritious, sustainable, and cost-efficient plant-based foods.

Factory farming has a direct, negative impact on human health, and subsidizing it costs taxpayers money every year. In contrast, investment in plant foods and alternative proteins can have significant economic potential, with myriad health and environmental benefits.