Mihaly: Big Ag's climate problem | Perspective
We can solve Big Ag’s climate problem — but not with “renewable” natural gas. Big agriculture knows it has a climate problem. Factory farms — industrialized facilities raising large numbers of animals for food — belch methane, a climate-damaging greenhouse gas 27 times more potent than carbon dioxide. But instead of stopping methane at its source, industrial agriculture is trying to profit by producing more of it.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate: agriculture
The impact of climate change on agriculture.
Related Knowledge Center: Methane
As the production of natural gas from shale fields has expanded, so have methane emissions. U.S. methane emissions grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration. Methane contributes about 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.