Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Research on Industrialized Farming and Community Well-Being
Public concern about the detrimental community impacts of industrialized farming is warranted, according to updated research conducted at the request of the State of North Dakota. The report, Industrialized Farming and Its Relationship to Community Well-Being: An Update of a 2000 Report by Linda Lobao, added the results of research from 2000 to 2006 to the findings of past research on industrialized farming.
Dr. Curtis Stofferahn, lead author, indicated, “In brief, this conclusion rests on five decades of government and academic concern with this topic, a concern that has not abetted but that has grown more intense in recent years, as the social and environmental problems associated with large animal confinement operations have become widely recognized.”
The report examined conclusions from 56 studies on the consequences of industrialized farming for communities. Of these, approximately 82 percent found adverse impacts on indicators of community well-being. http://www.und.nodak.edu/misc/ndrural/Lobao & Stofferahn.pdf (please copy and paste this address rather than clicking on it)