Feb. 16, 2023 www.investigatemidwest.org Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
Iowa leads Midwest in ag emissions
The country's fourth most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions is the agricultural sector. Transportation, electricity and industry, such as fossil fuels and coal mining, all emit more.
However, emissions from these three sectors have been plummeting for the past three decades, while emissions from the agriculture industry have remained steady.
Almost half of the country's greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector are produced in the Midwest, which has seven of the top 10 agriculture-producing states. Iowa leads the Midwest in agricultural emissions and is second in the U.S.
— Mónica Cordero, Report for America corps member
Despite national goals, agricultural greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked
Erin Jordan, The Gazette, and Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest/Report for America
An excerpt from this investigation by Investigate Midwest and The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa:
Digesters are one solution to the big challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, which makes up more than 10% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States as of 2020, the most recent year available.
Agriculture is a major source of planet-warming greenhouse gases, and farming-intensive states like Iowa — with 13 million acres of corn and seven hogs per person — are outsized contributors, federal data show. Iowa ranks No. 2, behind Texas, for greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
While nationwide emissions from sectors like energy production have fallen in recent decades, those from agriculture – especially livestock and corn – have grown.
Half the states in the country have no greenhouse gas reduction goals, which makes it hard to see how the United States is going to reach its economywide target of a 50% reduction below 2005 emissions levels by 2030.
“It’s purely a political decision, right?” said Steven Hall, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at Iowa State University.
Read more.
Graphic of the Week: Agribusiness spent a record-breaking $165 million on federal lobbying last year
Madison McVan, Investigate Midwest
Agriculture companies and industry groups spent more than $165 million to lobby Congress last year, according to data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that collects information on money in politics.
The OpenSecrets data goes back to 1998. Since then, lobbying spending by the agriculture sector had previously peaked at around $154 million in 2013, a Farm Bill year.
See the chart and read more.
Opinion: South Dakota CAFOs may soon bid adieu to most nuisance lawsuits
Dave Dickey, Columnist
South Dakota legislators are considering a proposal that targets lawsuits against consolidated animal feeding operations, aka CAFOs.
Dave Dickey writes in his latest column: "Agriculture is South Dakota's largest industry and the state's meat and poultry processing facilities generated $4.9 billion last year. Needless to say when CAFOs complain about how tough they got it with frivolous lawsuits you can bet politicians are paying attention."
Read more.
