CAFOs as Hotspots: Effect on Ecosystem Services and Needed Change in Environmental Leadership

Abstract

Many Americans are neither aware that 99 percent of their meat consumed in the United States is produced by large-scale factory farms; nor, are they aware of the deleterious effect these operations have on environmental systems. In North Carolina, the country’s second pork producing state, the lack of public awareness and public misperception have a direct impact on environmental decision making, which further exacerbates the challenges posed by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). As with all businesses they operate based on the law of supply and demand, the growing number of CAFOs is directly related to increased meat consumption and corporate desire for higher profits since the 1950s. This project seeks to determine whether understanding CAFOs as hotspots and increasing public awareness about industrial meat production can effectively influence positive environmental change, from the personal food choices of individuals, to the political decisions of leaders and policy makers.