The New York Times Makes Video Claiming Agriculture is, "Killing our Planet"

By Mackenzie Johnston

On February 1st, the New York Times released a YouTube video titled “Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet.” The video is fourteen minutes of  bold faced lies and misrepresentations of the people and processes that feeds this nation. 

The video opens with New Jersey’s vegan and animal activist Senator Cory Booker explaining that he is incredibly frustrated that the climate movement in the U.S. doesn’t talk enough about food. He believes that to solve the climate problem, we must fix the American and world food system.

Once Booker’s opening remarks are complete, the narrator takes it upon herself to accuse agriculture of being a major polluter in the U.S. This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. According to the EPA, agriculture accounts for just 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in America. This is a drop in the bucket compared to transportation that accounts for 29% and electricity accounting for 25%.

The accusations roll on without credible sources when the narrator claims annual agricultural emissions are comparable to 143 million cars, annual agriculture profits are $116 billion, and the agriculture industry has very little regulation. Agriculture shouldn’t be in the same sentence as cars when it comes to pollution considering pollution from cars is almost three times as much as agriculture. The USDA forecasted net farm income to be $116.8 billion in 2021, and I would agree that this is a problem, because farmers and ranchers aren’t getting rich. In 2019 U.S. farm bankruptcies hit an eight-year high. Thanks to government handouts in 2020 and 2021, farm and ranch bankruptcies dropped slightly, but volatile markets have many producers just one natural disaster, international trade dispute or interest rate hike away from financial disaster. When it comes to regulations in the industry, agriculture is easily one of the most regulated industries on both a state and national level. The industry is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state environmental departments, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and many others.

The video repeatedly refers to this massive packing plant as a typical, “farm.”

The narrator then blames agriculture for taking up too much of America’s land, but again, this allegation is far from accurate. According to Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, since 1982, more than 31 million acres of U.S. agricultural land has been permanently lost to urban expansion and every hour 175 acres of farm and ranchland is swallowed up to make room for housing and other industries. When it comes to land being used for agricultural purposes, it’s unfortunate that the narrator didn’t mention that agriculture is one of the few industries that can reverse climate change through carbon sequestration. Cattle ranches specifically do their fair share of good for the environment by providing various ecosystem benefits like preserving wildlife habitats, defending against invasive plants, and mitigating wildfires.

The question is then asked why Americans aren’t angry about the agriculture industry. Maybe Americans aren’t angry because those in the agriculture industry only make up 2% of the population, and that 2% is feeding the other 98%. Maybe it’s because without farmers and ranchers millions of people not only in the U.S., but around the world would go hungry. Maybe it’s because those of us involved in agriculture, here in America, produce the highest quality food that can be found on planet earth.

After releasing the video they were quickly forced to edit it an issue this correction. They have used such convoluted statistics, even the correction doesn’t make sense.

The narrator refers to agriculture lobbying as ‘the big ag lobby,’ but agriculture lobbying doesn’t even make the top ten largest lobbying industries in the U.S. Farmers and ranchers are then discredited for sharing their story and their way of life. The allegation is made that the heartwarming story of family operations is propaganda, it’s all just a front for industrial agriculture, but the truth is agriculture is far from being dominated by an industrial takeover. According to USDA, in 2020 almost 98% of US farms fell into the family farm category, which can be defined as a business where the majority is owned by the operator and individuals related to the operator.

This video is an opinion piece; however, it is presented as factual and instead of being rooted in facts, it’s rooted in fear. The New York Times has lacked credibility for some time now. Their agenda is fully exposed through this content and unfortunately the influence of this video is far reaching; after five days of being posted, the video had over 58,000 views. 

All of us in agriculture are pro-planet and when you remove us from the climate conversation, you remove individuals that could be part of the solution. This video is a true example of biting the hand that feeds you. It’s unfortunate that agriculture is painted in such a negative light when we go above and beyond to better our land and the environment daily. We’ll continue to counter false accusations like this, and at the same time feed all those that hope to someday destroy our industry, because that’s who we are, we’re a hearty bunch that can easily be described as the backbone of America.

We have purposely not linked to the video in order to not give them more views. Please trust us when we tell you it’s garbage. The more views they get the more incentive they have to make more garbage.

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Mackenzie Johnston raises Red Angus cattle on her family ranch near Milburn Nebraska. She has a daily video series, Cattle News Central, where she reports and comments on the news of the day in the cattle industry. Follow her here, Cattle News Central