Ag and greenhouse gas

New analysis from the US Environmental Protection Agency, combined with the US Department of Agriculture data, shows that farmers and ranchers continue to reduce per-unit greenhouse gas emissions. All told, the U.S. agricultural sector accounts for less than 10% of total U.S. emissions. That’s less than the emissions from the transportation, electricity generation and industrial sectors.

Washington State House RepublicanJacqueline Maycumber provided some insight into why we are doing such a good job cleaning things up: ”We have the cleanest manufacturers in the world, and our good governor awards those manufacturers, and I've been to plenty of them with these great glass-paneled awards, the cleanest in the world. We are paying hundreds of millions of dollars in innovation to be the cleanest in the world and then we pass policy and those companies say, 'it's not worth it.”

A Market Intel report finds that per-unit methane emissions from livestock have declined since 1990 as livestock producers have increased productivity. During the past 30 years, U.S. milk production has increased 71% while per-unit emissions of milk have declined by almost 25%. Beef production has increased almost 50%, while per-unit emissions have fallen nearly 8%.