Why MCEA is challenging the permit for Minnesota’s largest dairy feedlot

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By Sarah Horner

This has been a record-breaking summer in Minnesota. Extreme heat and repeated days of smoky hazardous air from wildfires burning in the Boundary Waters and Canada have sent dozens to the hospital, canceled events, ruined plans, and kept many people confined indoors. 

While many factors are in play, the accelerating climate crisis is a significant one. And scientists expect extreme weather events to only intensify in the years to come.

This backdrop is part of why Minnesota must intensify its efforts to reach its climate goals and ensure our biggest emitting sectors do their part to reduce their climate pollution. It’s also why MCEA appealed the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) recent decision to issue a permit that allows the state’s biggest dairy operator – Riverview LLP. – to construct the largest animal feedlot in Minnesota history, despite the fact that the permit does not include any provisions to manage the feedlot’s staggering greenhouse gas emissions. 

Minnesota’s agricultural sector is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the state, trailing only slightly behind transportation. Yet at a time when the state is trying to lower emissions to net-zero by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector are increasing. Agricultural activities are responsible for 96% of Minnesota's nitrous oxide emissions and 44% of the state’s methane emissions. 

These super pollutants have much greater warming potential than carbon dioxide but over a shorter time period, meaning small reductions can have a big impact.  And there is mounting evidence that Minnesota’s emissions inventory underreports the true amount of emissions from the agriculture sector. Curbing that trend is critical to lowering emissions from the agriculture sector and preserving Minnesota’s chance of reaching its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. 

Feedlots specifically have an outsized climate impact, largely through enteric fermentation of ruminants like cows, manure decomposition, and indirectly through various ways operators manage soil used for growing livestock feed crops such as corn, according to the Environmental Working Group. Riverview's expanded operation alone is expected to generate more greenhouse gas emissions than some gas-fired power plants. 

There are proven strategies for moving the needle, including changing the amount, type, and placement of fertilizer used to grow animal feed, adopting different strategies for storing manure, and incorporating common-sense caps on animal feedlot headcounts. 

MCEA’s appeal, which was filed in the Minnesota Court of Appeals earlier this month, centers on MPCA’s approval of the permit Riverview needs to more than double its dairy feedlot in Morris, Minn. If allowed to proceed, the feedlot would house just under 19,000 cows. This is roughly 60 times the size of the average Minnesota dairy herd, which had fewer than 280 cows in 2025, according to media reports. 

“Minnesota law requires Riverview to explain the methods and practices it will deploy to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from its unprecedented operation,” said Jay Eidsness, supervising attorney at MCEA. “If Minnesota is serious about meeting its climate goals and being part of the solution to slow the growing climate crisis, our state agencies cannot continue to give giant industrial agriculture operations like Riverview a free pass on their climate pollution.”

MCEA’s legal challenge asserts that MPCA’s decision to approve Riverview’s permit violates state law due to the feedlot’s failure to identify methods and practices to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from large feedlots, a requirement in Minnesota’s feedlot rules. 

If it’s successful, the state will finally begin to require greenhouse gas minimization plans in feedlot permitting, which will mandate large feedlots to develop strategies to minimize their climate pollution. That outcome would be an important step toward setting Minnesota’s agriculture sector on a path more aligned with our state’s goals and the future so many of us are fighting for. 

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