Issue Brief

Executive Summary

Iowa, along with the rest of the Midwest, is making a bad bet on factory farm gas (FFG). The state is at the center of a national push by fossil fuel companies and meat and dairy companies to expand FFG, also known as “manure biogas.” This gas is produced in large sealed tanks called anaerobic digesters, which collect the gas that emanates from the cesspools of animal waste collected from cows and pigs on factory farms. After capture, the gas is processed and then used for fuel, heat, and electricity.

State government leaders have joined their federal counterparts to support these projects, which are touted as an economically viable method of producing clean energy. But these projects are built on a false premise. FFG is neither clean nor economically viable. They have the potential to cost the public millions and increase farm-related pollution by locking in the worst of the factory farm system.

And they carry two great costs that have gone largely unnoticed: they would condemn millions of future animals to lives of suffering in extreme confinement, while simultaneously blocking pathways to genuine food system transformation.

Iowa and the rest of the Midwest face a choice of what future they want to build: do they want to become architects of this nightmarish version of animal agriculture where animals are treated as power plants and locked into factory farms for decades to come? Or do they instead want to become exemplars of building a better future for people, animals, and the environment?

Key Takeaways:

• Iowa state policy, as well as recent federal legislation, has cleared the way and provided the funds for more FFG. Iowa has raised its animal capacity limits for farms with digesters, and the number of animals at such sites grew shortly after. At the federal level, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” extended FFG credits through 2029 while gutting wind and solar incentives. All of this happened during the state’s unprecedented pollution crisis, much of it resulting from industrial animal agriculture.
• The FFG industry is not working, and the ecosystem is fragile. Several notable FFG projects have failed, and gone delinquent on government loans, leading federal officials to recently issue a long-term pause on further federal loans.
• Factory farm gas buildout could condemn countless animals to suffering. Iowa has more potential FFG sites than almost any other state (~2,800), yet only a small fraction of that capacity has been achieved, so expectations for possible buildout of biogas operations are high. The industry actualizing its projections could lock millions of animals into factory farms for decades to come.
• Factory farm gas blocks the pathways to genuine food systems transformation. FFG acts as a subsidy and support to the industrial factory farm model, with all of its associated air and water pollution problems. Farmer transitions, regenerative agriculture, and other models of a better food system are all disadvantaged when policies support FFG. At the same time, FFG also creates a new coalition led by the two largest contributors to our climate crisis: industrial agriculture companies and fossil fuel companies. Those companies now have shared financial incentives to jointly wield their huge political power to block food system reform.

We urge legislators and policymakers to:

• Stop subsidizing factory farm gas through grants, tax credits, and carbon programs
• Help farmers transition away from industrial confinement systems
• Redirect public funds toward real food system reforms