News

Johnson defends livestock sustainability

South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson went to bat for the sustainability of the livestock sector and all of U.S. agriculture at a House Ag subcommittee hearing on sustainability today.

He chided an opinion piece by the New York Times titled “Meet the people getting paid to kill our planet” that he says was full of misinformation and oblivious to the kind of progress made in the ag industry.

“The piece was terrible and was made worse by the fact that some members of Congress, including Senator Corey Booker, cooperated with the project. So, let’s be clear because the facts are not in dispute! In recent decades the U.S. beef industry has reduced net emissions by more than 40%.”

Johnson pointed to continued improvements including livestock precision measuring technologies being developed by South Dakota State University, “They’re using GPS, they’re using precision scales to track individual cattle location and weigh on a daily basis. And these tools also allow these producers to manage grazing rotations with a smart phone.”

Johnson says, too often, producers have a target on their back from naysayers and are not given credit for their sustainable practices and the work being done to improve them.