New York Times – Misrepresentation of American Ag

Columnist Dawson Schmitt Explains Why a Recent New York Times Video Misrepresents the Facts about Agriculture.

By Dawson Schmitt, dawson.schmitt@iowastatedaily.com

Feb 2, 2022 Updated Feb 3, 2022

“It’s official: farming is the bane of the human race, or so The New York Times has determined. Yet coming from the institution that is the alleged keeper of truth and objectivity, a recent video, “Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet,” targeting agriculture, is riddled with misinformation.

The video immediately sparked a backlash from agricultural groups, and rightly so. The National Beef Cattlemen’s Association (NCBA) responded to the Times, saying the “claims about emissions and land use are not true.”

According to the EPA, agriculture makes up only 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. While fermentation in ruminant livestock accounts for nearly 30 percent of total methane emissions, it may not be as detrimental to the environment as the Times makes it out to be, where I already explored this topic in a previous column.

NCBA also pointed out that the video leaves out facts about land use in America and the relationship farmers and ranchers have with what is and is not farmed. The Times is right that agriculture uses a significant amount of land, where they point out that much of it is used to raise livestock, yet they fail to mention the difference between arable and non-arable land. Arable land allows you to grow crops,