Factory farms collect billions in taxpayer handouts to install expensive manure digesters that capture and burn methane — and generate profits from the waste. But the systems don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions — they just move the pollution around.

There has been much media hype about manure digesters and how they will “solve” climate change by capturing and burning methane from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) — aka factory farms.

Billions in taxpayer handouts and other incentives through pollution offset trading markets are encouraging factory farms to expand and profit from their waste stream.

Some economists now speculate that factory farms are earning more from making methane than milk!

My gut reaction 15 years ago to Vilsack’s manure digester panacea to global climate change remains true today — why pay to fix a problem that doesn’t even need to exist?