Over 30 Organizations Urge USDA to Limit Federal Support for Manure Digesters

Washington, D.C. —

Today, a coalition of 34 organizations filed a rulemaking petition urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS) to deem anaerobic digesters that are located at industrial livestock operations or use livestock manure ineligible for grants and loans under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). At the same time, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of petitioner Friends of the Earth, challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s violation of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for illegally withholding public records that detail the agency’s decisions to fund manure digesters using REAP dollars.

REAP exists to help farmers and rural small businesses lower energy costs and foster stronger communities, not prop up factory farms,” said Molly Armus, Animal Agriculture Policy Program Manager at Friends of the Earth. “If USDA wants to save taxpayer dollars, it should stop wasting its funds on inefficient, costly digesters and instead invest in projects that truly benefit rural communities.”

The petition urges RBCS to disqualify manure digesters from REAP funding because these projects undermine the very goals the program was created to advance. REAP was created to help farmers and rural small businesses cut energy costs and strengthen local economies; yet hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been funneled into expensive, polluting manure digesters. Manure digesters, which are meant to capture methane emissions and generate energy from large amounts of animal waste, overwhelmingly benefit industrial-scale livestock operations, fuel consolidation in rural areas, and contribute to air and water pollution that threatens nearby residents.

The petition also notes that over the last five years, new manure digesters received average loan guarantees of $18.7 million, almost three times more than the average loan guarantees for solar projects, all while delivering far less energy per taxpayer dollar than the solar projects. As farmers and rural communities confront worker losses, reduced project funding, and declining markets, it is critical that federal funding supports projects that do not deepen these harms.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial livestock operations is critical, but manure digesters are a false solution,” said Kara Goad, Senior Associate Attorney at Earthjustice. “Manure digesters do not offer cost-effective emissions reductions or energy generation, and supporting them keeps limited funds from going to practices that reduce emissions, support small farms, and mitigate air and water pollution.”

Petitioners include: Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Cape Fear River Watch, Center for Food Safety, CleanAIRE NC, Climate Action California, Environmental Justice Community Action Network, Farm Aid, Farm Forward, Food & Water Watch, Friends of Toppenish Creek, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Kansas Rural Center, Kissimmee Waterkeeper, Michiganders for a Just Farming System, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, National Family Farm Coalition, Nebraska Communities United, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Potomac Riverkeeper, RE Sources, RedTailed Hawk Collective, Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, Shenandoah Riverkeeper, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper, and Waterkeeper Alliance.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit filed today challenges USDA’s unlawful use of the “deliberative process” exemption under FOIA to withhold 25 spreadsheets that show how the agency evaluated digester funding applications. These records reflect final decisions, not internal deliberations, and are critical for the public to understand why USDA uses its limited REAP funds to support these harmful and ineffective projects.

The petition outlines how funding for digesters is hurting–not helping–farmers and our environment, including:

• Benefits go to the biggest polluters. Subsidies for anaerobic digesters primarily benefit the largest industrial animal operations, giving them another subsidized competitive advantage over smaller farms and accelerating the loss of independent farms and rural economic vitality.
• Environmental harms. The petition documents numerous environmental harms associated with digesters, including spills and overflows releasing hundreds of thousands of gallons of waste into waterways as well as increased ammonia and nitrate pollution from the leftover byproduct, digestate. Methane leaks and herd expansion linked to manure digesters also make their impact on greenhouse gases dubious.
• High costs and poor returns. Digesters often cost between $2–12 million, require enormous taxpayer subsidies, and rarely recoup their costs. They’re also inefficient, with the digesters that received loan guarantees generating 4.5 times less energy per dollar than solar loan guarantee recipients. Specifically, the digesters that received loan guarantees generate an average of 8,047 BTUs annually per REAP dollar, while the solar projects that received loan guarantees generate an average of 36,728 BTUs annually per REAP dollar. Data further shows that many digesters shut down prematurely, making them a risky investment of public dollars.
• Better alternatives to build resiliency exist. REAP is consistently oversubscribed, so by making digesters ineligible, more funding could support projects like solar panels for small farms or energy-efficient refrigeration for rural grocery stores. These are the types of projects that lower costs and deliver lasting community benefits.

“There is no way to make factory farm gas sustainable,” said Sherri Dugger, Executive Director at Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. “Rather than using already limited REAP funds to subsidize these toxic operations, USDA should support the independent farmers, small business owners, and rural residents who are working to build healthier outcomes in their home communities.”

“These enormously expensive digesters serve as a subsidy for factory farms, incentivizing them to get bigger to produce more waste as they push small and mid-sized farms out,” said Ben Lilliston, Director of Rural Strategies and Climate Change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “Digesters are an increasingly risky investment, when more stable and cost effective options for renewable energy are in high demand from farmers.”

“This petition is important to the people of south central Washington where farmers are struggling to survive after three straight years of drought,” said Jean Mendoza, Executive Director of Friends of Toppenish Creek. “The REAP program should endeavor to disperse funds as equitably as possible with a goal of maximizing environmental benefits for all farmers. REAP funding should not be siphoned off to benefit a segment that actively and brazenly pollutes the land.”

“The use of anaerobic digesters exacerbates the already heavy burden imposed by factory farming on communities and the environment,” said Patience Burke, Pure Farms, Pure Waters National Campaign Manager at Waterkeeper Alliance. “This petition removes the veil and is a powerful illustration of how factory farm biogas is not a clean source of energy. Limited REAP funding should be available to truly renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, and not used in a way that perpetuates the abysmal manure management practices of factory farming.”

“It is important that the government takes steps to ensure that applicants selected for this funding are using the best available technology for the protection of the public’s health,” said Sherri White-Williamson, Executive Director of Environmental Justice Community Action Network.

“For too long, USDA has allowed factory farms and their Big Ag backers to syphon limited conservation funds toward expensive, ineffective, and dirty factory farm biogas projects,” said Tyler Lobdell, Senior Attorney at Food & Water Watch. “USDA must cut them off. It’s time these federal dollars were put back in the pockets of sustainable farmers who need them most.”

“REAP should help build the Michigan we all want to see by supporting truly clean energy, not subsidizing polluting manure digesters on factory farms.” said Val Schey with Michiganders for a Just Farming System. “Ending REAP funding for digesters would ensure the program works for Michigan’s rural communities, not against them.”

“In North Carolina, communities are living next to some of the nation’s largest hog operations, many of them owned by international corporations,” said Anne Harvey David, Chief Counsel for Environmental Justice at Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “That reality is a far cry from the small family farms REAP was meant to serve.”

“Factory farm gas is being sold as climate progress, but in reality, it locks in the very pollution and consolidation that rural communities are struggling to escape,” said  Andrew deCoriolis, Executive Director of Farm Forward. “Taxpayer dollars spent on digesters prop up industrial animal operations while worsening air and water pollution. USDA should redirect these funds to farmers and ranchers who are producing food in ways that actually protect the climate, public health, and rural livelihoods.”

“Factory farm biogas production further enriches industrial animal agriculture and biogas developers at the expense of rural communities,” said Christine Ball-Blakely, Senior Staff Attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “REAP funds exist to help rural communities, not the industries that harm them.”

The full petition is available here.

The complaint is available here.