The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

Animal Agriculture Costs More In Health Damage Than It Contributes To The Economy

actually, it doesnt say that at all and the paper claims that crops constitute a greater fraction of agricultural GED (Gross Economic Damage). I wouldnt say the difference has statistical significance.

I dont think the paper has any scientific or statistical merit. It's a monument to BS that one might expect from folks with Public Policy degrees and one of the authors is Portuguese (i.e. her exposure to the US is Pittsburgh and Stanford). Their 'data' are almost entirely derived from EPA estimates. How much accuracy would you attribute to EPA estimates spanning a single presidential term (2008-2014)? Dont think there might be any bias there? /s

GED isnt defined until the 5th page. As far as i can tell, GED is defined on a county basis. I have no idea what they mean by "economic unit" and it is unclear if their use of the word "height" is a linear measure or some colloquial equivalent for magnitude. A county basis is stupid and all of their 'data' is derived from the EPA without any detail as to the EPA's measurement/estimation methods.

I can picture Amarillo not getting pegged for agricultural NH3 or VOC emissions because the cows weren't raised in Amarillo and it is a city but if you've ever been to Amarillo (or Dodge City, KS) you'd know that those cities have very high agricultural NH3 and VOC emissions. Amarillo is also in 4 counties so which county gets pegged for what? San Bernardino and Imperial counties in CA are large areas with large agricultural outputs with very little contributions from other sectors. Kern County is also large with very poor air quality - most of which is not due to humans living in Kern County. I suspect Kern is thrown into the 'agricultural' sector just because it's rural. Conversely, Orange county also has significant agricultural output but also has large air pollution contributors from other sectors so does the agricultural contribution get killed?