Understanding the Impacts of Proximity to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the United States Through Computational Modeling

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are one of the most prevalent forms of livestock production in the United States, accounting for a considerable portion of food animals despite their relatively small space usage and share in overall livestock production (Gurian-Sherman 2008, Hribar 2010).

Substantial quantities of animal waste and odor are byproducts of the sheer number of animals confined in these intensive livestock operations, which have both environmental and social ramifications.

I examine these impacts in two contexts at the state-level for states with the most CAFOs, primarily in the Midwestern and Southern United States: the longer-term environmental impacts, such as water pollution, from the management of animal waste in lagoons, and the shorter-term social impacts, including health issues and decreased quality of life for homeowners, from the odor emitted by CAFOs. To incorporate flow direction in determining the spatial extent of CAFO waste, I integrate USGS NHD state-level flowline datasets with locations of CAFOs and their respective lagoons, as well as the locations of water quality monitors to create a GIS hydrologic model. Likewise, I model wind direction and magnitude through the generation of wind plumes derived from NOAA orthogonal wind data, which incorporate the angle of incidence and wind speeds calculated from this dataset.

Frequency distributions of wind angle at several CAFOs over different temporal averages indicate that the spread of animal odor is not uniform but skewed toward some directions. Additionally, intersections between CAFOs and census tract centroids show which residential areas are exposed to more emitted animal odor. I will continue to analyze these preliminary trends over different spatial and temporal extents and correlate them with existing spatial and temporal datasets to better understand the impacts of proximity to a CAFO.