Last month, 22 environmental, public health and animal welfare advocacy groups sent a petition to the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission calling on it to regulate air pollution from large dairies. The petitioners want the state to require dairies with 700 or more cows to obtain an air emissions permit and conduct an air impact assessment of pollutants like methane and ammonia. They also claim that regulating emissions from large dairies is necessary for Oregon to comply with the federal Clean Air Act and meet the state’s greenhouse gas reduction targets. But the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association claims that the regulations aren’t necessary and would impose an additional financial burden on dairies which are already struggling with inflation and overtime pay requirements for farmworkers.

Joining us are Alice Morrison, the organizational director of Friends of Family Farmers, an advocacy group which signed the petition, and Tami Kerr, the executive director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association.