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Oct. 31, 2025 by Rep. Bob Gibbs represented Ohio's 7th District in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2023. He is the former President of the Ohio Farm Bureau and owner of Hidden Hollow Farms in Holmes County as it appeared in Agri-Pulse
Last year, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she was suing JBS USA Food Company, the largest producer of beef products in the United States, for allegedly making "several misleading claims about its environmental impact." In her press release, James asserted that "animal agriculture accounts for 14.5 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions" and "beef production emits the most greenhouse gasses [sic] of any major food commodity." In other words, this was never really just about JBS--it was a legal statement against the American livestock sector as a whole. While the New York Supreme Court dismissed her suit (for now), the broader environmentalist campaign against American farmers and ranchers is only gathering steam. That same year, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) sued Tyson Foods for also allegedly misleading consumers. Tyson had pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and while that deadline was still a cool 26 years away, activists accused the company of "greenwashing" because they believed it hadn't moved fast enough. Tyson, of course, doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's a processor that buys from thousands of American farms and ranches. When EWG sues Tyson, the collateral damage lands squarely on producers. For some political actors, this seems to be the new playbook: use agriculture companies' own sustainability goals as an excuse to sue them for the "crime" of producing food. Never mind that they work with thousands of family farms. Never mind that they feed tens of millions of Americans every day. The result is a chilling effect on voluntary climate commitments. After all, why set goals if they'll be turned into courtroom weapons? The campaign's roots trace back to 2017, when New York University launched its State Energy and Environmental Impact Center with a hefty donation from billionaire climate activist Michael Bloomberg. The Center's goal was to fund and embed state assistant attorneys general to pursue "polluters," including energy and agriculture interests. It's an unusual arrangement--an out-of-state billionaire effectively underwriting public prosecutors to sue their own constituents--and some states have started to push back. In 2019, Virginia passed a measure requiring attorney general employees to be paid only with public funds. Yet others have leaned in. New York's Letitia James continues to collaborate with the Bloomberg-funded Center, which proudly spotlights her work on its website. Sooner or later, U.S. agriculture will have to confront this coordinated legal offensive. Environmental groups spent decades harassing fossil fuel producers through litigation, costing them billions and shaping energy policy through the courts rather than through Congress. American farming now faces the same threat. We don't have to look far for a warning. In the Netherlands, a wave of environmental lawsuits forced the government to slash nitrogen emissions, crippling livestock herds and upending rural communities. Dutch farmers were the true targets. As Dutch law professor Laura Burgers bluntly wrote: "For those who hope to transform the meat and dairy industry into an environmentally sustainable and animal-friendly business, little is to be expected from the legislature. In that light, resorting to the judiciary seems a logical step." To read the entire op-ed click here Tweet |
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