"A coalition of food, environmental and animal welfare groups is appealing a recent federal court decision that upheld a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule exempting factory farms from publicly disclosing hazardous air emissions information.

The groups say the rule — which passed in 2019 under the first Trump administration and exempts large livestock farms from reporting their ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions — is unlawful and leaves communities near large livestock farms unaware of harmful air pollution.  

“The owners of industrial factory farms don’t want to alert nearby communities about releases of dangerous gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide because they don’t want to be held responsible for the brain and lung damage and deaths their emissions can cause,” Ryan Maher, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, which is one of the groups appealing, said in a statement.

Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are common near animal feeding operations, which are large-scale livestock farms often with animals in confined areas. Both pollutants can cause health problems including respiratory diseases, nasal and eye irritation, headaches and nausea, and, at high enough concentrations, they can cause brain damage and even death."

Brian Bienkowski reports for The New Lede October 6, 2025. [2]