March 13, 2021

Food for Thought: The Impact of Food Choices in a Changing Climate

This informative program will address a variety of cutting-edge and important law and policy issues relating to the connection between food production and energy use and climate impacts. Panelists will address these issues as they relate to the various sectors of our food chain and offer perspectives on potential innovative approaches.

Speakers and topics will include:

THE ANIMAL-CLIMATE CONNECTION: Factory Farms and Slaughterhouse Practices

(1) Climate Impacts of Factory Farms

Brent Newell, Food Project Senior Attorney, Public Justice Food Project, Oakland, California
Industrial dairy and hog operations are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane, a climate super pollutant. But Big Oil & Gas smell opportunity and have begun to capture factory farm gas as a combustion fuel to greenwash their products with this so-called “renewable” energy. This presentation will discuss the climate impact of industrial animal agriculture, why factory farm gas is dirty energy and a false solution, how pollution trading schemes support factory farm gas and exploit Black, Latino, and people of color, and what policy makers should be doing to Build Back Better while centering environmental justice at the core of climate policy.

(2) Issues at the Slaughterhouse

Delci Winders, Assistant Clinical Professor & Director, Animal Law Litigation Clinic, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon and Dani Replogle, Senior Fellow, Earthrise Law Center, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon Slaughter and the Environment— An Under-Examined Climate-Food Nexus
The climate change and other environmental impacts of raising animals for food on an industrial scale are gaining increasing—and long overdue—attention. Often overlooked, however, are such impacts beyond the farm, particularly at the slaughterhouse. This presentation will focus on the environmental impacts of slaughter itself, how those impacts are exacerbated by recent moves to increase slaughter line speeds, and what can be done to address these issues legally.

More information can be found here.