Meat and Dairy Industries Favor Trump Over Clinton

In a recent investigative report, Mother Jones journalist Tom Philpott revealed that top companies in the meat and dairy industry sector contributed to the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Philpott analyzed information contained in the OpenSecrets.org campaign finance database to determine which candidate agriculture sectors supported most with donations. While the Clinton campaign received donations from the organic agribusiness sector, General Mills, and Whole Foods Market, meat and dairy producers were noticeably absent from her reports. Inversely, the top seven contributors to the Trump campaign included Tyson Foods, poultry processor Mountaire Corporation, and dairy company Dean Foods. “Perhaps the industry is salivating over vows by Trump ag surrogates that the candidate would roll back clean-water regulations on factory livestock farms,” Philpott said. Despite funds donated by the animal agriculture industry to the Trump campaign, in August 2016, Clinton collected a total of $446,227 from agribusiness contributions while Trump drew in $350,205.