CAFO Resource Page
Contact person: David Walker (d.walker63@verizon.net)
General Information
The Meatrix! This clever, three-minute animated take-off on The Matrix explains the scourge of factory farming in a graphic, entertaining format. A good educational tool.
Consumers Union. 2000. Animal Factories: Pollution and Health Threats to Rural Texas. This report focuses on Texas, but information on nutrient overload, air emissions, antibiotic resistance and other topics applies everywhere.
Ikerd, John. Top ten reasons for rural communities to be concerned about large-scale, corporate hog operations. An agricultural economist now retired from the University of Missouri, Ikerd is one of the most influential voices in the sustainable farming movement. For activists looking for compelling, plain-English discussion about the implications of CAFOs, this paper is a good place to start.
Ikerd, John. Hogs, Economics, and Rural Communities. Ikerd explains why CAFOs don't make economic sense, and why they aren't inevitable.
Devore, Brian. 1997. Greasing the Way for Factory Bacon. Sustainable Farming Connection. Dated information, but provides another overview of the issues.
Stevens, Martha. 2000. Please don't call them farmers. A personal account of a close-knit rural community destroyed by a factory farm operation.
Hudson, Karen. 1998. Rural Residents' Perspectives on Industrial Livestock Production: A Patchwork of Social Injustice. An overview of environmental, economic and social impacts of factory farms by an Illinois activist. Includes bibliography with pre-1998 references.
Natural Resources Defense Council, 1998. How States Fail to Prevent Pollution from Livestock Waste — Report on Pennsylvania. Dated information, but some of it is still useful.
Stith, Pat, Jody Warrick, and Melanie Sill. 1995. Pulitzer Prize-winning series on corporate hog farms in North Carolina. Charlotte, NC: The News & Observer.
CAFOs and Property Values
Kilpatrick, John A. 2001. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Proximate Property Values. The Appraisal Journal. 69:3 (July 2001), p. 301. Abstract: Property located near a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) will be negatively impacted by this externality. The degree of impairment depends on proximity and property type and use. Properties with higher unimpaired values are probably impacted more than otherwise lower-valued properties. (also available on the ProQuest database).
Herriges, Joseph A., Sylvia Secchi, Bruce A. Babcock. 2003. Living with Hogs in Iowa: The Impact of Livestock Facilities on Rural Residential Property Values. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. Abstract: Livestock operations have an overall statistically significant effect on property values. Predicted negative effects are largest for properties that are downwind and close to livestock operations.
Ready, Richard and Charles Abdalla. 2003. The Impact of Open Space and Potential Local Disamenities on Residential Property Values in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Pennsylvania State University. Staff paper 363. Abstract: Of the potential local disamenities investigated, the impact of landfills on house price was largest, and extended the farthest. The impact of a large-scale animal production facility on house price was about one half to two thirds as large as that from a landfill.
Palmquist, Raymond B., Fritz M. Roka, and Tomislav Vokina. 1997. Hog Operations, Environmental Effects, and Residential Property Values. Land Economics, 73 (1997): 114-124.
Mubarak, Hamed, Thomas G. Johnson, and Kathleen K. Miller. 1999. The Impacts of Animal Feeding Operations on Rural Land Values. Report Presented to the Saline County Study Steering Committee (Community Policy Analysis Center, Report R-99-02, May 1999).
Seipel, Michael, Mubarak Hamed, J. Sanford Rikoon, and Anna M. Kleiner, 1998. The Impact of Large-Scale Hog Confinement Facility Sitings on Rural Property Values. Animal Production Systems and the Environment: 1998 Conference Proceedings, pp. 413-318.
Community Economic Impacts
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. 1999(?) Bringing Home the Bacon? The myth of the role of corporate hog farming in rural revitalization. Uses data from Texas County, Oklahoma to illustrate the impacts of the recruitment of a an industrial swine operation on a rural county. Indicators; employment, income, taxes, business activity, and water, soil, and air quality.
Iowa's Center for Agricultural Safety and Health and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 2002. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: Public Health and Community Impacts. A guide summarizing some recent research on respiratory illnesses, neurological and mood problems, water quality, odors, antimicrobial resistance, and community impacts.
Grace Factory Farm Project. 2003. Economic reports and analyses of factory farm operations by Bill Weida, director of the Grace Factory Farm Project.
Air Emissions
National Research Council. 2003. Air Emissions from Animal Feeding Operations: Current Knowledge, Future Needs. The latest information from a reputable source. Order it or read it online for free.
Rockefeller Family Fund. 2002. Raising a stink: air emissions from factory farms. Summarizes the latest literature on air pollution emissions from CAFOs and their health effects. Also includes information on state and federal regulations regarding air emissions from CAFOs.
Asthma: children who live on hog farms have a higher prevalence of asthma, according to an ongoing rural health study conducted by the University of Iowa. The findings were reported in the press in October, 2003 (click here or here) but the study itself was unavailable pending publication in an academic journal. Address inquiries to co-author James A Merchant, MD, College of Public Health, University of Iowa. (319) 384-5452. james-merchant@uiowa.edu.
Amy Chapin, Charlotte Boulind, and Amanda Moore (Yale Environmental Protection Clinic). 1998. Controlling Odor and Gaseous Emission Problems from Industrial Swine Facilities: A Handbook for All Interested Parties
Water Pollution
(Resources to be posted).
Antibiotic Resistance
(Resources to be posted).
Animal Welfare
The Humane Farming Association. Campaigns against factory farm and slaughterhouse abuses.
Factory farm animals live short, brutish lives. Online information with photos about gestation crates (hogs), veal crates, and battery cages (chickens).
Hog farm pictures. Graphic and disturbing.
Federal, State, and Local Regulations
Federal Register. 2003. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Regulation and Effluent Limitation Guidelines and Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs); Final Rule. Current EPA rules and regs on CAFO waste management and permitting.
Laws and regulations pertaining to CAFOs and Nutrient Management plans. A state by state listing. Or, access Pennsylvania rules and regs directly.
Technical Information
Manure and Waste Management Books and Publications. Technical manuals for farmers distributed by the MidWest Plan Service.
Links to various manure web sites. Looking for technical information? This site lists manure and nutrient management web sites in the US and Canada. Caveat emptor: some of the links here are dated.
Dead Pig Composting. A detailed recipe from Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Kephart, Kenneth P. 1992. Dead Pig Disposal. Another how-to missive from Penn State, with information about what the law required as of 1992.
Dionis, Kim. Phosphorus In, Phosphorus Out. Phosphorous concentrated in manure is a major source of water pollution from CAFOs. This guide explains how animals get and use phosphorous, and how Penn State University is trying to help farmers comply with nutrient management regulations.
Goodlander, Doug. 1999. CAFOs, AFOs, and NMPs in Pennsylvania. A useful overview of the Nutrient Management Act of 1993 from the PA State Conservation Commission.
Community Organizing
The Grace Factory Farm Project Guide to Confronting a CAFO. Fact sheets and handouts, plus numerous resources to help you organize your community, conduct research, and get your message out to the media.
Agribusiness Links
Who's Who at PennAg Industries Association. PennAg Industries promotes CAFOs in Pennsylvania as the inevitable future of agriculture, and fights local control as a threat to the existence of animal agriculture in PA.
Penn State Ag Council. Serves the interests of PA agribusiness.
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
Books
Thu, KM and EP Durrenburger. 1998. Pigs, Profits, and Rural Communities. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Other Useful Sites
Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (Penn Future)
The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
North Dakota Rural Life Factory Farming and CAFOs.
The North Carolina Hog Site. Maintained by UNC's Environmental Resource Program. A good source of information on North Carolina's battle over CAFOs. Last updated in 2000.