Biogas is a renewable energy source produced through the breakdown of organic materials, such as agricultural waste, animal manure, and food scraps, by microorganisms in anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions. While biogas is often promoted as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, its production and use can come with significant environmental and social challenges, particularly in marginalized communities.
What is Directed Biogas?
When swine feces and urine are stored and covered, they create methane gas that can be extracted to generate electricity. On a small scale, this gas can be used to power operations right on the farm where it’s generated.
But on a larger scale, producing biogas involves numerous farms capping large, unlined hog waste lagoons, trapping the methane gas from the waste, and transporting that gas through a maze of pipelines in communities to a central, company-owned plant for processing. Once processed, the company injects the gas into larger national gas pipelines. This process is collectively referred to as a “directed biogas” project.
Our Position
Biogas is poisonous from start to finish: the methods used to make it, to move it, and to process it make our air unbreathable, our water undrinkable, and our homes unlivable.
When hog lagoons are capped to produce biogas, they turn the liquid waste even more toxic. When that waste is sprayed onto fields or overflows during major storms, it poisons the well water we drink, the soil on which our children play, and the rivers and streams where we fish.
Research has proven that those of us who live near hog operations die sooner and more often from diseases related to polluted air and water: anemia, kidney disease, and tuberculosis.
The noxious odors from hog operations keep us prisoner in our own homes…and even there we’re not safe: research has shown traces of pig feces on our indoor appliances.
Duplin, North Carolina, and neighboring counties are on a floodplain, which makes biogas projects a triple threat:
We’re at greater risk from being flooded with hog waste during hurricanes.
By being built over wetlands, pipelines destroy what little flood defense we have left.
The methane that is prone to leak from a biogas project is 86 times worse for our climate than carbon—leading to more frequent and more extreme storms in the first place.
Distribution of Confinements
The establishment of biogas facilities frequently occurs in low-income and rural areas, which can lead to various environmental and health issues:
- Many biogas plants are built near communities of color or economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, exposing residents to odors, noise, and potential health risks.
- The concentration of agricultural waste in these areas often results in increased air and water pollution, impacting local ecosystems and the well-being of nearby residents.
- The risk of accidents and spills can pose immediate threats to communities surrounding biogas facilities, compounding existing environmental injustices.
Concentration of the Profits
The biogas industry is often dominated by large agribusinesses and energy companies that prioritize profit over community health and environmental safety. These corporations may engage in practices that compromise the well-being of local residents, such as:
- Underestimating or misrepresenting the potential environmental impacts of biogas facilities during the permitting process.
- Failing to engage with community members and stakeholders in decision-making, resulting in a lack of transparency and accountability.
- Prioritizing large-scale operations over small, community-based biogas initiatives that could provide equitable benefits.
Biogas is Smithfield’s latest scheme to “get rich quick”—making money off a problem they created and promised to fix—while Black, brown, and poor people pay the price. They have shown they don’t care whether you’re a resident, a hog farmer, or a plant worker, they will put your life and your livelihood on the line if it lines their pockets. If you’re Black, Latinx/Latino, Indigenous, or white and low-income, your life matters even less to them; ask yourself why our communities are chosen again and again to host the most polluting projects and corrupt industries.
Neither residents nor contract growers see much of the wealth generated by these biogas projects. It’s piped out of our community and into the pockets of pork and gas CEOs. Smithfield will continue to intimidate contract growers into producing biogas and pit neighbor against neighbor for its own ends.
Ways Forward
Community-Based Approaches
Stricter Regulations
Transparency and Engagement
Waste Management Practices
Promote sustainable waste management practices that reduce reliance on biogas production while minimizing environmental impacts, such as composting and recycling. The pandemic has shown us what’s possible.
