Animal-based food production connected to 12,700 air quality deaths
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Dust from tilling is a major source of pollution
Agricultural production in the US results in 17,900 air-quality related deaths annually, of which 15,900 are from food production. That’s according to a new study, published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Of these nearly 16,000 deaths, the study says 80 percent (12,700 deaths) are linked to animal-based food production, when the impact of animal feed production is included. The remaining 20 percent (3,200 deaths) are attributable to plant-based food production.
The study claims that NH
3 (emitted through livestock waste and fertiliser application) and PM
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Jun 15, 2021 to Jun 17, 2021
Last year’s omnibus package included a one-year extension for the Livestock Mandatory Reporting reauthorization. However, an influential Senate staffer does not anticipate Congress will open up full debate for reauthorization when it’s set to expire later this year.
The Livestock Mandatory Reporting rule, established in 1999, mandates price reporting for cattle, boxed beef swine and lamb. It is reauthorized every five years, with the current program expiring on September 30, 2021 after last year’s extension.
During a webinar hosted by the North American Meat Institute May 11, Martha Scott Poindexter, minority staff director of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, says there are several members who want to amend LMR, but it is hard to know if the full Congress will have the time for debate given its busy agenda. Many members and groups see this as an opportunity to make meaningful change to the program to increase transparency
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden-Harris administration released its plan to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The plan received a mixed reaction from agriculture groups.
The decade-long commitment relies on voluntary efforts to preserve public, private and tribal areas while also helping tackle climate change and create jobs.
A report, with the lofty title America the Beautiful, would purify drinking water, increase green space, improve access to outdoor recreation, restore healthy fisheries, reduce the risk of wildfires and recognize the “oversized contributions” of farmers, ranchers, forest owners, fishers, hunters, rural communities and tribal nations.
President Joe Biden has set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. If successful, the plan will help slow global warming and preserve some of the nation’s most scenic lands for future generations of Americans, the report said.
Governors Wind Energy Coalition
Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds Source: By Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post • Posted: Monday, May 10, 2021
The first-of-its-kind report pinpoints meat production as the leading source of deadly pollution
A hog farm in Vanceboro, N.C., is surrounded by floodwater in the aftermath of 2018’s Hurricane Florence. (Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg News)
The smell of hog feces was overwhelming, Elsie Herring said. The breezes that wafted from the hog farm next to her mother’s Duplin County, N.C., home carried hazardous gases: methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide.
“The odor is so offensive that we start gagging, we start coughing,” she told a congressional committee in November 2019. Herring, who died last week, said she and other residents developed headaches, breathing problems and heart conditions from the fumes.