Dakota Rural Action v. U.S. Department of Agriculture

The federal district court for the District of Columbia vacated provisions of a Farm Service Agency (FSA) 2016 final rule that established a categorical exemption from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for loan actions to medium-sized concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Medium-sized CAFOs stable or confine 200 to 699 mature dairy cows, 300 to 999 veal calves, 300 to 999 cattle, or 37,500 to 124,999 chickens. The court found that FSA had not provided notice that it would exempt all such loan actions from any NEPA review, had provided no opportunity for public comment on this change, and had provided “essentially no reasoning” for the change. The plaintiffs’ allegations included that CAFOs are one of the largest sources of air pollution in the U.S. and that “CAFOs and CAFO waste disposal also release the powerful greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide,” contributing to climate change.