Concentrated Animal Feed Operations have been around for a few decades. Basically concentration camps for cattle, pigs and chickens, these factory farms not only torture animals but also are major polluters and and a principal emitter of greenhouse gases. But in recent years, a spurious alliance of the fossil fuel industry and big ag, has figured out a way to greenwash this horrible institution. What they are trying to sell you now is called biogas - the enormous amount of methane produced in these establishments' manure cesspools, which when covered, can be captured and put into pipes. The fracked gas industry is promoting this methane as renewable natural gas. But a more honest term is factory farm gas.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk Amy van Saun, Senior Attorney at Center for Food Safety, about why this practice is harmful the environment, animals and all the rest of us.