The article was in AdDaily and said that the 22 environmental groups ere petitioning the state to adopt new air quality rules — specifically going after large dairy farms.
I didn’t realize this, but Oregon has over 200 dairy farms, which is a healthy number in my estimation.
When I worked for Biomass Magazine and we held a conference in Seattle, Wash., we hopped across the border to Oregon and toured a dairy farm where they were collecting dairy manure to create renewable natural gas that could be used to power the farm or to replace diesel fuel to run farm machinery.
And I believe there are several dairies who collect manure for this purpose, so I was surprised to see the environmentalists picking on dairies.
According to the petition, “Air pollution from the State’s growing number of exceedingly large mega-dairies threatens the public health and safety of Oregonians, as well as the environment. Yet the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality neither monitors nor regulates this air pollution through its current Air Contaminant Discharge Permit program. It is past time for Oregon to address air pollution from large dairy concentrated animal feeding operations.”
They want the state government to require dairies to obtain air quality permits.
It never ceases to amaze me how these people can ignore all the emissions from the millions of cars on the road, large industrial plants pumping out emissions and the growing amount of asphalt and concrete covering up soils that could be capturing greenhouse gases, not to mention all the trees that are cut down to allow for housing developments.
I don’t think the state of Oregon is going to heed the environmentalists warning because they already regulate the dairy industry by requiring them to have a Confined Animal Feeding Operation Permit.
Just to put a fine point on this issue, I saw a post on Facebook that kind of sums up my point of view on livestock and their impact on the environment. I don’t know who to credit for this post, but here it is,” The woke brigade and plant-based food army are now claiming that cows emit more pollution than cars. If you believe that, I’ll make a deal with you, you lock yourself in a garage with a running car and I’ll do the same with a cow and we’ll discuss it in the morning.”
Not to mention, Oregon dairy farmers and other livestock producers have bigger fish to fry.
In August, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have confirmed 13 wolf depredations of livestock in the state.
The most recent was a 250-pound calf with organs and muscle tissue torn from its hindquarters. The dead calf was found in the same 36,000-acre private allotment between Klamath Falls and Rocky Point where staff had photographed another calf with injuries attributed to a wolf attack.
It sounds like the Oregon FWS keeps tabs on the wolves in the state using radio collars but that unfortunately doesn’t keep the wolves from attacking livestock.
