Environmental groups want EPA to regulate large dairy and hog operations

A group of 25 environmental and rural advocacy groups are petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to hold large dairy and hog operations to stricter environmental standards.

The groups, including the Sierra Club, the Government Accountability Project and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, want the EPA to list and regulate industrial dairy and hog operations—facilities that confine at least 500 cows or 1,000 hogs without access to pasture while liquefying manure—under section 111 of the Clean Air Act. The agency would designate the operations as sources that cause or contribute significantly to dangerous pollution.

According to the petition, these operations account for 33% of agricultural methane emissions, 13% of total U.S. methane emissions and 1.3% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

“Americans deserve clean air and water, a stable climate and to live in healthy and sustainable communities,” petitioners said. “The EPA has the duty and authority to regulate these methane super-emitters under the Clean Air Act as part of the administration’s larger strategy to prevent catastrophic and irreversible climate change.”

New study highlights opportunities for beef producers to reduce emissions

A recent study from Colorado State University found that beef producers can lower their greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 50% in some regions of the world through new ranch management practices.

The researchers found that improved cattle growth efficiency and enhanced land management with carbon sequestration significantly reduced emissions. Of the regions they studied, Brazil and the United States proved to have the highest potential for emissions reductions.

Still, said researcher Daniela Cusack, “we will never reach net-zero emissions without further innovation and strategies beyond land management and increased growth efficiency.”