Today, the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy released its U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan. The plan promotes the use of anaerobic digesters, and touts a “new public-private partnership” to promote factory farm biogas as a solution.

In response, Food & Water Watch Policy Director Mitch Jones released the following statement:

“Agricultural sector methane emissions are a critical driver of climate change — but stopping them requires shifting away from gas infrastructure, not more industry-friendly band aids like digesters. Factory farm biogas and carbon trading schemes are false solutions that distract from the root cause of the industrialized agriculture industry’s pollution problem — the continued concentrated corporate control of our food system.

Congress must pass the Farm System Reform Act to curb the growth of this destructive factory farm model, and President Biden must direct his administration to stop incentivizing false solutions like factory farm biogas, which only intensify the current system. 

We have no time to waste on greenwashed solutions that offer a lifeline for the destructive corporate agriculture industry.”