Por Sylvia Regan
Paralegal de investigación
If you take Big Ag execs at their word, they’ve found the miracle solution to climate change. By converting the poop from cows into “biogas” or “renewable natural gas,” their massive factory farm facilities are creating a new, sustainable source of energy out of waste that would otherwise contribute to climate change — or so the story goes.
Sound too good to be true? It is.
Big Ag and Big Oil like to call it “biogas” or even “renewable natural gas” because these names deceive people into thinking factory farm gas is natural and sustainable. But we call it what it really is — factory farm gas.
Factory farm gas is produced by massive animal agriculture facilities that keep thousands of animals in close confinement, producing tons of manure. Factory farms then put this manure in cesspools (while Big Ag euphemistically calls these lagoons, they are far from a tropical oasis) and create the conditions for that manure to break down and create a lot of methane gas. That methane gas is then burned for energy, much like natural gas (fracked fossil fuel gas) is.
Big Ag has convinced our state and federal governments to pour huge amounts of public money into supporting factory farm gas. But the reality is that our tax dollars are being spent on projects that create more planet-warming gas, entrench the biggest, most polluting factory farm corporations’ power, and dig us deeper into the climate crisis.
We’re calling B.S. Factory farm gas doesn’t solve Big Ag’s sustainability problems—but it does create a bevy of new ones.
Big Ag and Big Oil are Lying. Factory Farm Gas Projects Don’t Meaningfully Reduce Methane Emissions.
Big Ag’s big selling point on factory farm gas is that it reduces emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in a twenty-year timeframe. Instead of methane from manure breakdown going straight up into the air, the logic goes, factory farms are now catching it and turning it into a useable fuel.
There’s a lot of problems with this. First, factory farms could use better manure management to prevent the production of methane in the first place. Instead, they deliberately create conditions where the manure creates maximum amounts of methane to be harvested.
Often, these facilities create too much methane, so much so that they “flare” or burn the methane gas onsite. This releases nitrous oxide, another powerful greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and other dangerous and climate-worsening pollutants.
And, once the factory farm gas is captured, the pipelines that transport it are notoriously prone to leaking—putting the planet-heating gas right back into our atmosphere.
Factory farm gas enriches only the biggest factory farms
The factory farm gas scheme rewards the worst actors in our food system — the powerful corporations that own the largest factory farms. That’s because collecting methane from manure can only ever pay off if you consistently have massive amounts of manure available. A megadairy with 61,000 cows in confined space knows it can make, and profit from, a lot of gas. An independently-run farm with 100 animals on pasture could never make it work.
As is their business model, huge factory farms aim to maximize their profits from factory farm gas. This new revenue stream creates a new incentive to confine ever more animals and create more planet-warming gas, not less.
More animals=more manure=more gas money.
This is driving the expansion of massive factory farms which decimate local environments, communities, and independent farmers.
Our tax dollars are propping up factory farm gas. Even with public funding, these projects fail.
Factory farms are raking in a lot of public money to start and maintain their gas projects. Without taking our tax dollars, these projects would not be financially viable. Yet we’re all still footing the bill for these ineffective, deceptive, polluting projects with public money that could be going towards real climate solutions and sustainable agriculture.
Factory farm gas in and of itself should not be profitable. But in addition to tax benefits, government programs, like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, reward factory farm gas by giving factory farms “credits” for it, which factory farms then sell to other climate polluters as climate offsets.
Even with all of the public funds propping them up, these schemes are failing. Recently, USDA paused its loan program that was paying for factory farm gas infrastructure, because so many of the borrowers were delinquent in paying them back. This pause suggests that factory farm gas is so economically shaky that even Trump’s Big Ag buddies at USDA are losing their stomach for these risky investments. The pause comes soon after 30+ environmental groups petitioned USDA to reconsider these loans which allows factory farms to profit from pollution.
Proponents of factory farm gas sell a pretty, greenwashed package. But when you look under the hood, these schemes are built to fail. One out of five manure digesters built since 2000 have closed. But in the meantime, Big Ag is happily raking in the tax benefits and pollution-trading credits.
Big Ag and Big Oil are Desperate to Keep their Cash Cow Alive
With the rise of factory farm gas, two of the most polluting, exploitative industries have joined together to cling to their power. The public has caught on to Big Oil and Big Ag as the biggest perpetrators of the climate crisis and other environmental pollution. Factory farm gas offers a convenient solution for both Big Ag and oil corporations to say they’re now part of the solution. They created this problem, and now they can profit from it while playing the savior.
Big Ag and Big Oil are trying to pull the wool over our eyes so they can keep us trapped in the systems they control. Both industries rely on exploitation and extraction to maximize corporate profits, all while making us and the earth sick.
Transformative Change is the Real Solution
At FarmSTAND, we are fighting back against the industry lies that prop up factory farm gas. We’re taking Northwest Natural Gas Co. to court for deceiving utility customers into paying for a “smart energy” program that really just pays for factory farm gas. We’re also keeping a watchful eye on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and representing community groups arguing that the commission shouldn’t approve these harmful projects.
Factory farm gas is a dirty dead end. We don’t have to settle for food and energy systems controlled by corporations. Instead, we can push for true transformation. We can build a food system that prioritizes clean air and water, supports independent farmers, and lifts up rural communities.