Kind of not easy to give you a total picture as it would take too long to go into that much depth so I will give you an example.
1. Cattle
Example A: You buy from a local cattle farmer that raises cattle and lets them eat grass on his farm, uses some grain that he grows to feed them a bit and always makes sure to finish them on grass only so that the E-coli situation is not an issue. His cattle are not as big as the cattle that come from a feedlot and they are not produced as quickly, he also has to put in extra work to properly grow his own feed for them or he has to pay his neighbor a reasonable price to buy the good stuff to feed the cattle so as they are raised to his personal standard. He then hires a local butcher that doesn't run the cattle through a mill like a large feedlot does and only does them for the local ranchers again, the cost per head is greater, but he is sure that his cattle are being treated as humanely as possible and that he is actually getting back the cattle he raised to sell as meat (Either that or he sells them as an entire live cow and you pay for the butcher.)
Example B: The cattle is stacked into a feedlot as tightly as possible (And acceptable per the FDA EPA or whoever controls that standard) and fed corn (Which is highly subsidized by the federal government) They are fed up as quickly as possible using hormones, and whatever other combination of food and drugs can get them to the largest size possible as quickly as possible. They are given drugs that are produced to keep the cattle "Healthy" and then they are mass slaughtered and produced into various cuts of meat that are sold to stores like walmart etc. Walmart uses its huge buying power to keep the prices as low as possible which is helped by their massive tax breaks they receive from the federal government each year. I wouldn't be surprised if Con Agra Tyson Monsanto etc are all also given massive tax breaks keeping the cost of their production rock bottom as well. In the end they are still producing beef but the Federal government has its hand in it from the start to the finish. (They have picked the winner)
So lets paint the picture: You have one cow that is produced at full price without any discounts because there is no buying power so the cost has to be higher. You have a second cow that is getting federally subsidized in the form of corn, CAFO tax breaks, and End sales tax breaks so the cost per pound if significantly lower.
The real difference is that when you buy beef that isn't subsidized you have to pay the actual cost for that beef. When you buy beef that is subsidized part of what you are buying is paid for by tax dollars. Typically the reason to pay full price for beef would be to know where it was raised, how it was raised, and how it was slaughtered. Some people are willing to pay that cost to have that piece of mind and some people cannot afford that and are looking for the best deal they can find at Wally world. Honestly I buy meat both ways at times. I think that people should at least understand that when they are buying based on price alone that they are buying a subsidized product that is subsidized in the form of tax dollars.
I hope this is clear and I didn't ramble too much.
