How Taxpayer Money Is Fueling Intensive Farming and Deforestation Worldwide

04 November 2025, London: Governments around the world, including China, the US, India and the EU, are fuelling deforestation by subsidising factory farms, a new report from World Animal Protection reveals.

Launching ahead of COP30, ‘Subsidising Factory Farm Harm’ unpacks the magnitude of subsidies flowing into factory farms, leaving small-scale farmers behind and farmed animals trapped in cruel factory farms. 

Agriculture receives among the most subsidies of any sector globally, second only to fossil fuel. The sector also remains a key contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions (34%), building a compelling case for governments attending COP30 to shift away from harmful intensive farming subsidies if they want to assist in meeting the Paris Agreement target.

Kelly Dent, Director of External Engagement at World Animal Protection, said: “We can’t keep pouring taxpayer money into food systems that are not fit for purpose. Factory farms pollute our climate, destroy biodiversity and put animals through immense suffering. The future is in fair farms, not factory farms.

“Instead of supporting small-scale, sustainable farming, subsidies are supercharging the market power of ‘big meat’. Meaning consumers aren’t only lining these businesses’ pockets at tax time, but at the checkout too.

“Governments need to redirect subsidies away from factory farming. Public finance should drive sustainable and humane food systems, but right now we’re being locked into harmful ones.”

Key facts:

• If left unchecked, agriculture is projected to produce 52% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
• The subsidised production of food drives land expansion that causes around 14% of global deforestation. The key drivers of this expansion are beef, soybeans (mostly used for animal feed) and palm oil.
• In Brazil, home to COP30, the subsidies granted to the beef sector is on average roughly $3.1 billion USD per year when the industry pays only about $3.8 billion USD annually in taxes.

The report identifies a major transparency gap in how agricultural subsidies are reported globally. Most major subsidising economies, including the US, China and India, do not disclose exact figures for subsidies directed to animal production. 

In the EU, where detailed data exists for agricultural subsidies, the average annual industrial farming financial support is approximately $88.5 billion USD per year. The report shows that if half this amount were redirected toward plant-based diets and sustainable farming systems, each year it would save 25.9 million megalitres of water and free 19.4 million hectares of land in the EU alone.

Factory farming is a major contributor to the planet’s environmental degradation and some of the worst animal welfare abuses, confining 76 billion animals annually in barren and overcrowded facilities. 

The charity is calling on governments to move towards a humane and sustainable food system, by withdrawing subsidies to factory farming, and redirecting support to sustainable farming methods, such as agroecology.

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