ADC applauds EPA ending decades of air emissions uncertainty for farms

The American Dairy Coalition applauds EPA’s decision to end a 20-year-old air emissions compliance program affecting livestock and dairy farms, ending decades of uncertainty over potential federal requirements. The program began with EPA’s 2005 Animal Feeding Operations Air Compliance Agreement and National Air Emissions Monitoring Study (NAEMS).

EPA announced Oct. 30 that it will not develop the emissions estimating methodologies envisioned by the program, concluding that the monitoring data are too limited and outdated to reliably represent today’s farms. EPA said moving forward could impose burdensome regulatory requirements without sufficient environmental or public-health benefits.

The action follows USDA’s recent directive ending the use of mandatory dairy checkoff funds to advance ESG and Net Zero reporting commitments. Together, the actions mark a significant shift away from the federal and checkoff environmental framework that developed over the past two decades and toward voluntary, farmer-led environmental stewardship.

“Farmers are the original environmentalists. They have always cared for their land, animals and natural resources while finding ways to do more with less,” said Sherry Bunting, ADC Dairy Market Analysis and Policy Advisor. “We’ve spent too much time building data and modeling frameworks around

what farms emit without fully recognizing the natural cycle — what livestock recycle, regenerate and provide. Progress is strongest from the ground up, with farmers applying good science in the real world to make improvements that work for their land, cattle, businesses, communities and the environment — not top-down targets prescribing a model or outcome.”

The 2005 program also has a dairy checkoff connection. Congress provided a one-year allowance in fiscal year 2006 for the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board to use checkoff funds for environmental and public-health activities, and the Board authorized up to $6 million for NAEMS. That authority expired, but checkoff environmental work continued and expanded through GHG research and modeling through the checkoff-funded Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, established in 2008, along with subsequent federal partnerships and agreements.

ADC supports voluntary, science-based, farmer-driven conservation and innovation, while protecting farmer choice and farmer ownership and control of their proprietary operational data.

Read the EPA’s announcement here