Empty Pastures: Confined Animals and the Transformation of the Rural Landscape

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More About This Textbook

Overview

Over the past century American agriculture has shifted dramatically, with small, commercial farms finding it increasingly difficult to compete with large-scale (mostly indoor) animal feeding operations (AFOs). In this book Terence J. Centner investigates environmental, social, economic, and political considerations related to the rise of the so-called factory farm, exposing the ramifications of the contemporary trend toward industrial-scale food production. Just as Rachel Carson's landmark Silent Spring used the disappearance of songbirds as a jumping-off point for a work that raised public awareness of pesticides' devastating environmental impact, Empty Pastures sees the dwindling numbers of livestock in the American countryside as a symptom of a broader transformation, one with serious consequences for the rural landscape and its inhabitants -- animal as well as human.

After outlining the rise of the AFO, Centner examines the troubling consequences of consolidation in animal farming and suggests a number of remedies. The issues he tackles include groundwater contamination, the loss of biodiversity, animal welfare, concentrated odors and other nuisances, soil erosion, and the economic effects of the disappearance of the small family farm. Inspired by largely abandoned traditional practices rather than a radical and unrealistic vision of a return to an idealized past, Centner proposes a series of pragmatic reforms for regulating factory farms to halt ecological degradation and revitalize rural communities.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780252028953
  • Publisher: University of Illinois Press
  • Publication date: 2/28/2004
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Pages: 208
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Table of Contents

Abbreviations viii
1. Serenity in the Countryside 1
2. Changes in Agricultural Production 13
3. The Production of Animals 30
4. Concentrations of Animals and Water Pollution 48
5. State AFO Regulations 60
6. The Environment of Rural America 74
7. Agricultural Conservation Efforts 90
8. Odors and Nuisance Law 103
9. Pesticide Contamination Precedents: Liability and Management 117
10. Accountability and Enforcement 131
11. Transformations in Food Production 145
12. Plowing Forward to a Cleaner Environment 158
Appendix 1 Regulatory Agencies for Animal Feeding Operations 169
Appendix 2 State CAFO Regulations 178
Index 183
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