Biogas Subsidies and the Increase in Consolidation on Industrial Hog Operations

Industrial agriculture corporations operate with one goal: maximizing profits. In the name of this single objective, pig facilities fill warehouses with thousands of animals, where the costs of housing and feeding the animals can be kept as low as possible. An oft- unconsidered consequence of packing animals into warehouses is the sheer amount of waste created. Each pig creates about thirty times as much waste as a human, but industrial agriculture facilities do not have sewer systems for managing the thousands of gallons of waste produced every day. Instead, large facilities typically store their raw sewage in open air vats the size of an Olympic swimming pool. This method of waste storage produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases and poses a significant threat to the health of workers and people living near the industrial facilities. In recent years, large farms have started implementing anaerobic digester systems to store the animal waste. In these systems, organic matter is broken down to create energy, which facilities can profit from through government subsidies and through various “cap and trade” programs. Though the industry advertises this energy as a green or renewable energy source, this article explores why “biogas” is not a viable solution to the problem of industrial agriculture waste, and why taxpayer dollars should not be spent on the biogas industry.