WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and U.S. Representative Alma S. Adams Ph.D. (D-NC-12) led 13 colleagues in strongly opposing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s recent decision to make certain practices that are primarily or exclusively used by factory farms eligible for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) conservation funding.

“We oppose the inclusion of these practices, which further entrench the unsustainable, inhumane industrial model by funneling a significant portion of conservation dollars to a handful of large producers instead of supporting more small and mid-sized producers employing meaningful conservation practices. Incentivizing resource-intensive industrial practices that disproportionately harm disadvantaged communities runs counter to the purpose of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to meaningfully lower greenhouse gas emissions and address environmental injustice,” the lawmakers wrote. 

The lawmakers expressed concerns over the eligibility of practices like waste storage facilities, biogas capture facility covers, livestock feed management, and waste separation facilities.

“The storage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid manure in manure lagoons pollutes the air and water of surrounding communities and this inherently unsustainable manure storage system is only further entrenched by the adoption of anaerobic digesters. Further, inclusion of these practices will further consolidate the agricultural sector by rewarding the largest firms and incentivizing farmers to increase herd size in order to generate more manure. Small farms already struggle to get funding from oversubscribed conservation programs, and this decision will make more conservation funding flow to the largest farms,” the lawmakers continued.

In the IRA, Congress allocated billions to the oversubscribed Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to help farmers adopt climate-smart practices. However, USDA’s inclusion of these new industrial practices undermines the goal of the IRA to mitigate climate change, by crowding out practices that are more effective at reducing emissions.  

“In light of these concerns, we request that the NRCS remove industrial agriculture-centric practices from the list of eligible conservation practices,” the lawmakers concluded. 

The letter is cosigned by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03), Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL-04), Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), Summer Lee (D-PA-12), James P. McGovern (D-MA-02), Richard E. Neal (D-MA-01), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), Shri Thanedar (D-MI-13), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12); Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC-AL).

The full text of the letter can be found here.