Talk to any family farmer and we will tell you: Every year, keeping the business running gets harder.
For many of us, family farming has been passed down for generations. We’ve hung on, with a singular determination, as massive corporate industrial operations have monopolized a larger and larger share of the livestock market. We’re no stranger to having the scales tilted against us, but right now we’re facing a major challenge that could push more family farms closer to the brink.
The roots of this latest market squeeze? Deeply misguided incentives in California’s climate program.
I’m a family farmer in Missouri, but I have a direct stake in a set of new regulations that the state is considering, and I’m urging California leaders to consider the rural communities they’ll be throwing under the bus if they cave to corporate pressure.
Nearly everyone agrees that these manure lagoons are a disaster for farms, our environment and our health. But rather than changing policies to incentivize cleaner, sustainable farming practices, officials have long celebrated the program as a model.
The main problem is that when you monetize this type of management practice, industrial operations are incentivized to also expand them and build more factory farms, creating more manure, more air and water pollution in local communities, and yes, more climate warming methane – the very gas that California regulators want to reduce.
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