As public demand intensifies, industrial animal agriculture cannot ignore the call to mitigate its environmental havoc. Indeed, as a primary driver of climate change, the industry is feeling the heat. True to form — think cutting off birds’ beaks to address pecking stimulated by overcrowding — Big Ag has foisted on us another false solution: methane trapped from decomposing cow or pig manure, also known as biogas, for energy production. This dirty factory-farm gas is a byproduct of the inundation of animal waste generated by factory farms; its production entrenches our current polluting food system and its myriad public health and environmental harms. This is the industry’s most blatant attempt at greenwashing yet.
Nevertheless, the current administration has made Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds available for biogas projects (which Rep. Alma Adams and Sen. Cory Booker recently opposed in a congressional sign-on letter to the USDA). These funds are meant to incentivize climate-smart agriculture and support farmers. Instead of attempting to mitigate the damage of factory-farm waste, we should address the damage at its roots and advocate real climate solutions.
The Transfarmation Project® does just that by helping farmers transition from industrial animal agriculture to raising crops for human consumption. The program has demonstrated that farmers can in fact convert factory farms into more sustainable operations, addressing Big Ag’s immediate environmental impacts and promoting economic diversification for farmers, creating more robust rural communities and opportunities for sustainable growth. Transfarmation™ advocates the establishment of a federal farm-transition program to achieve these aims on a national scale.
Factory farms poison air, soil and water. Decomposing manure produces potentially toxic gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane, along with manure stench and dust that can drift for miles. This drift often lowers nearby residents’ quality of life, forcing them to close windows, forgo outdoor activities and keep children home from school. People living near factory farms suffer higher rates of respiratory illness, headaches, nausea and eye irritation, making factory-farm manure a human rights issue as well as an environmental one. Additionally, these noxious facilities are often situated in low-income communities of color, including many areas in North Carolina, highlighting a critical issue of environmental justice.
Drones captured the first aerial images of vast biogas digesters subsidized by the state of California, exposing a growing trend among factory dairy farms. Research finds that this trend may lead to larger herd sizes and thus increased greenhouse gas emissions. Factory farms in two California cities added cows after the permitting or installation of their biogas digesters — suggesting that biogas subsidies may incentivize factory farms to expand, causing even more damage to the environment, public health and animals.
Factory-farm transitions would not only eliminate animal waste altogether but shrink our agricultural CO2 footprint. For example, chicken farms and strawberry farms respectively emit 5.4 pounds of CO2 per pound of meat and just 0.69 pounds of CO2 per pound of fruit. Transitioning one four-shed industrial chicken farm to a strawberry farm would cut yearly CO2 emissions by 20 million pounds. It would decrease annual phosphate production by 98 million pounds. Phosphate runoff from factory farms makes soil less fertile, lowers crop yields and pollutes lakes and rivers, creating scummy algal blooms that kill aquatic animals and ghostly ocean expanses that can no longer support life. This farm transition would also generate 284 million fewer pounds of sulfur dioxide per year, an insidious gas that often creates particulate air pollution and harms trees and plants — nature’s own CO2 reservoirs.
The Transfarmation Project® spotlights not just factory farming’s harm to the environment but its exploitation of farmers. Increasingly, farmers are sharing their stories about the injustices of factory farming. The typical contract farmer for a big meat company set out to be a steward of the land, but the industrial system prevents this. The company mostly controls their operations, so the polluting, planet-warming methods aren’t theirs to replace. They want out, but they can’t shake their worry: How will I support my family with empty barns? Will I have to sell my farm and move my family?
Biogas may have a role in the energy landscape, but it shouldn’t overshadow the urgent need to reform our agricultural systems. If our energy comes from dirty factory-farm gas, we’ll remain trapped in an exploitative system. Transfarmation works with policymakers dedicated to enhancing the lives of farmers and rural communities. It’s time to prioritize policies that support equitable, sustainable agriculture that benefits rural communities, farmers, and future generations.
Tyler Whitley is the director of The Transfarmation Project®. As part of his master’s degree, he worked for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on a project in Cambodia, where he administered cash transfers and community reinvestments for more than 7,500 smallholder farmers. After his graduation from Tulane University, Tyler managed a food and farming intervention program in two rural Haitian provinces. He now resides in North Carolina, where he previously managed the Challenging Corporate Power program and staffed a farmer financial-crisis hotline for four years.
