Factory Farm Gas: Rendering Industrial Wastes a Renewable Energy Source on North Carolina Pig Farm

The production of farmed animals generates billions of gallons of liquid industrial animal waste each year. This seminar examines the production and management of this waste in North Carolina (USA) pig farms, focusing on the emergence of a corporate-driven, government-subsidized waste-to-energy sector that renders industrial animal waste into a renewable energy source: biogas/biomethane.

While anaerobic digesters are not new technologies, the scale at which they are being deployed and the reliance on industrial animal waste is. By challenging the framing of this waste as a renewable energy source, this seminar argues that biogas, or what communities label Factory Farm Gas, is a socio-ecological fix used to obscure the environmental, social, and public health crises inherent to industrial animal agriculture production.

Through the lens of political ecology and drawing on fieldwork and interviews, this seminar explores the relentless demand for expansion and entrenchment that has driven the industry to seek alternative profit opportunities as animals are pushed to their biological limit, where “everything but the squeal” is commodified. This shift has created a pivotal moment in capitalist agricultural production, which has historically depended on the externalization of industrial animal waste. I conclude by reflecting on how Factory Farm Gas poses novel challenges to justice movements, as it further entangles industrial energy and agricultural interests and their infrastructure.

Part of the GPE Brown Bag Seminar Series. All welcome.