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The Environmental Quality Commission has received a petition for rulemaking to create a dairy air emissions regulatory program. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality invites public comment on whether EQC should direct DEQ to deny the petition, grant the petition and initiate rulemaking proceedings, or pursue another action.

On September 14, 2022, Secretary Vilsack announced USDA is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity. According to the USDA, this new program will expand markets for America’s climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers.

Traditional wastewater treatment is energy-intensive and generates around 5 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG). In comparison, vermifiltration requires almost no electricity, thereby reducing GHG emissions by 91 percent. Astoundingly, earthworms remove more than 80 percent of nitrites in wastewater and reduce methane emissions by an even higher percentage.

The agri-tech company says its technology holds the key to locally-made, sustainable fertilizer, which could free farmers from their dependence on expensive chemical alternatives.

With the drive to become carbon neutral by 2050, America’s dairy farms bring more than milk to the market. They are looking to exchange carbon credits for dollars. The Caballeros milk 5,200 cows in a 72-cow rotary and anticipate generating 214 MMBtu of renewable natural gas daily from their manure digester.

Cows from Bar 20 Dairy in California are helping fuel more than 17,000 electric vehicles. Seven thousand cows from Bar 20 Dairy near Fresno are providing manure to the project. The poop goes from “cow houses” into a pipeline and covered lagoon outfitted with a “first-of-its-kind, next generation, climate-smart digester,” the dairy says.

In a new renewable energy milestone, a Wisconsin company is using the power of the sun to transport fuel made from cow manure. Through a partnership with Peterbilt Motors and Maki Trucking, EnTech Solutions plans to use a battery-powered truck to haul methane from its Middleton biodigester to a pipeline injection port at the Dane County landfill. Charged with energy from the digester’s solar panels, EnTech says the electric truck will lower the operation’s environmental impact and make it more profitable.

Since Pizza Hut’s inception in 1958, it has worked with the same family-owned business to supply 100% real cheese made with whole milk to top its pizza and that commitment to the highest-quality cheese will remain unchanged. With this announcement, Pizza Hut will leverage its national scale by partnering with DFA and dairy suppliers to help make its supply chain more environmentally friendly by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The use of renewable energy in the agriculture industry is an exciting new frontier that—with the right partners—can bring environmental and economic benefits to farmers, surrounding communities, and the renewable transportation fuel industry. And it truly revolves around manure.

More than 250 dairies across the U.S. use some type of anaerobic digester system to generate electricity or renewable natural gas (RNG). The technology adds a revenue stream for the farm, aids in manure management and community relations, provides lower carbon fertilizer options and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, all of which enhance sustainability efforts.