Tell EPA: Cut climate-warming pollution from the meat and dairy industry

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

pig in cage from factory farm

Billions of animals are crammed onto factory farms — producing enormous amounts of waste and climate-warming methane emissions.  In fact, animal agriculture is responsible for 36 percent of all U.S. methane emissions, more than any other sector.

The industrial meat and dairy industry has been allowed to pollute our environment and rake in profits without repercussions. But now, you have an opportunity to stop this.

Methane emissions from industrial meat and dairy farms are increasingly contributing to the climate catastrophe and an alarming number of devastating fires, floods, and extreme weather events taking place worldwide. Factory farms are also a major polluter of local communities, particularly communities of color.

Despite the well-documented impacts of factory farms on people and the planet, the EPA has refused to issue regulations to rein in this highly polluting industry.

President Biden has signed Executive Orders on tackling the climate crisis and placing environmental justice at the center of national climate policy. To make good on these promises, the EPA must crack down on factory farming and protect people, animals, and the planet.

Mega meat and dairy corporations are fighting hard to keep the status quo with no accountability. It’s up to people like you to speak up.

Tell the EPA to protect people and our planet by treating factory farms like the toxic polluters they are!

To: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
From: [Your Name]

Dear EPA Administrator Regan:

Factory farming drives the climate crisis, harms local communities, creates breeding grounds for the next pandemic, and perpetuates intolerable animal suffering. I am writing to urge you to regulate methane emissions from industrial hog and dairy operations and reject factory farm gas as a false solution. Factory farm gas — burning methane sourced from liquefied manure — is really just dirty energy pushed by Big Oil & Gas and Big Ag corporations as “renewable” to greenwash their fossil fuel climate pollution.

The EPA so far has failed to treat industrial animal agriculture like the climate polluter it is. It now has an opportunity to correct course by listing industrial dairy and hog operations as sources that cause and contribute significantly to dangerous pollution as defined by the Clean Air Act. According to EPA's own data, this sector accounts for 33 percent of agricultural methane emissions and 13 percent of U.S. methane emissions. Yet, the agency has neglected to exercise its current authority to regulate the animal agriculture sector, letting it spew methane emissions and other pollutants unchecked.

The EPA should also reject factory farm gas. Factory farm gas will incentivize more factory farming and the climate harm, air pollution, and water pollution that comes with it. Communities living near factory farms are often low-income communities and communities of color, making this a crucial environmental justice issue.

I respectfully urge you to grant the Public Justice Methane Petition to regulate methane emissions from industrial dairy and hog operations and ensure that factory-farmed methane gas is not accepted as a solution to methane emissions.

Sincerely,