Papers by Phoebe Gittelson
Environmental Justice, 2021
Years of community-driven research and participatory action have shed an important light on the c... more Years of community-driven research and participatory action have shed an important light on the copious negative health issues burdening communities adjacent to industrial agriculture. Rural communities in Wisconsin and Delaware have helped us in establishing an emerging source of pollution toward environmental justice communities-biogas. Biogas is being falsely marketed as a renewable energy solution to solve the problems of an already polluting industry, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (''CAFOs''). This greenwashing is problematic for many reasons and is in itself an environmental justice issue. The production of biomethane from manure-to-energy projects, such as manure digesters, is hazardous to local communities, locks farmers into more debt, and perpetuates the expansion of our current harmful agriculture practices, while increasing fossil fuel infrastructure by entrenching CAFOs with pipelines for the gas that is produced. In this article, we breakdown why biogas is not sustainable, how manure-to-energy projects perpetuate environmental injustices, examine current state policies on manure-to-energy projects, and how policy can be improved to protect frontline communities and farmers.
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Papers by Phoebe Gittelson