Over 30 Organizations Urge USDA to Limit Federal Support for Manure Digesters

On January 14, 2026, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) joined a coalition of 34 organizations to file a rulemaking petition urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBCS) to deem anaerobic digesters that are located at industrial livestock operations or use livestock manure ineligible for grants and loans under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

The petition urges RBCS to disqualify manure digesters from REAP funding because these projects undermine the very goals the program was created to advance. REAP was created to help farmers and rural small businesses cut energy costs and strengthen local economies; yet hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been funneled into expensive, polluting manure digesters. Manure digesters, which purport to capture methane emissions and generate energy from large amounts of animal waste, overwhelmingly benefit industrial-scale livestock operations, fuel consolidation in rural areas, and contribute to air and water pollution that threatens nearby residents.

The petition also notes that over the last five years, new manure digesters received average loan guarantees of $18.7 million, almost three times more than the average loan guarantees for solar projects, all while delivering far less energy per taxpayer dollar than the solar projects. As farmers and rural communities confront worker losses, reduced project funding, and declining markets, it is critical that federal funding supports projects that do not deepen these harms. 

Petitioners include: ALDF, Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Cape Fear River Watch, Center for Food Safety, CleanAIRE NC, Climate Action California, Environmental Justice Community Action Network, Farm Aid, Farm Forward, Food & Water Watch, Friends of Toppenish Creek, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Kansas Rural Center, Kissimmee Waterkeeper, Michiganders for a Just Farming System, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, National Family Farm Coalition, Nebraska Communities United, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Potomac Riverkeeper, RE Sources, RedTailed Hawk Collective, Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, Shenandoah Riverkeeper, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper, and Waterkeeper Alliance.