{"id":1999,"date":"2020-04-23T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=1999"},"modified":"2022-11-22T03:24:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T03:24:00","slug":"farm-forward-calls-on-oregon-department-of-environmental-quality-to-address-mega-dairy-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/farm-forward-calls-on-oregon-department-of-environmental-quality-to-address-mega-dairy-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Forward Calls on Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to Address Mega-Dairy Emissions\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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This week the\u00a0Stand Up to Factory Farms\u00a0coalition, a broad coalition of family farming, environmental, food safety, and animal welfare organizations, released a\u00a0<\/span>letter<\/span>\u00a0calling on the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) to include mega-dairy emissions control in their new rule making plan. The plan is required under Governor Brown\u2019s new\u00a0<\/span>Executive Order 20-04<\/span><\/a>, which directs state agencies to propose how they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by May 15, 2020.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Executive Order comes on the heels of the Oregon Legislature\u2019s failure to pass a climate bill in the 2020 short session earlier this year following a Republican walkout. Governor Brown\u2019s Executive Order requires agencies to do everything within their authority to reduce Oregon\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions to\u00a0<\/span>45% below 1990 levels by 2035<\/span><\/a>. Despite repeated requests for action, mega-dairy emissions have never been meaningfully addressed in any policy solutions for climate change.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Friends of the Columbia Gorge is excited that Gov. Brown is taking this unprecedented action, the DEQ must ensure the result does not ultimately degrade the air quality of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. More mega-dairies on the doorstep of the Gorge would contribute to air quality problems that threaten scenic views, human health, and the environment. The DEQ must hold the line.\u201d said\u00a0Steve McCoy, Staff Attorney at Friends of the Columbia Gorge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Emissions from mega-dairies include toxic and volatile greenhouses such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide\u00a0<\/span>that contribute to climate change<\/span><\/a>. The large quantities of manure mega-dairies produce are also a significant source of air pollution\u00a0<\/span>that contributes to regional haze<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the Columbia River Gorge. This renewed call to address mega-dairy emissions comes as ODEQ and the Oregon Department of Agriculture consider a permit application for a new mega-dairy in Morrow County, on the site of the disastrous Lost Valley Farm.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPolicymakers want to ignore it but industrial-scale animal operations including mega-dairies are huge contributors to greenhouse gas emissions,\u201d said\u00a0Brian Posewitz, director of Humane Voters Oregon.\u00a0\u201cConverting some of the animal waste to biogas won\u2019t solve the problem and in fact has the perverse effect incentivizing more factory farms.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDEQ has overlooked mega-dairy emissions for decades, but cannot continue to avoid this industry\u2019s climate change pollution in light of the Governor\u2019s Executive Order. DEQ must propose real plans to reduce factory farm emissions without further delay,\u201d said\u00a0Tarah Heinzen, Senior\u00a0Attorney with Food & Water Watch.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Oregon, we cannot repeat the federal government\u2019s failure to address carbon emissions from animal agriculture, especially industrial mega-dairies. We know better and we must hold our state policymakers to a higher standard,\u201d said\u00a0Amy van Saun, senior attorney with Center for Food Safety.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
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April 23, 2020<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-environment","category-food-system-solutions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}