Thousands of large-scale cattle- and hog-raising operations are disproportionately located near marginalized communities, according to a new study that ties those “factory farms” to sharply higher levels of harmful air pollution.
The study published Tuesday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment offers what the authors describe as a first-ever rundown of the distribution of almost 16,000 animal feeding operations (AFOs) across the United States.
They found that about one-quarter of those operations are clustered in just 30 counties in states like California, Texas and Nebraska. To varying degrees, nearby residents are more likely to be Latino and lack high school diplomas or health insurance.
Levels of fine particulate matter pollution were 28 percent higher in census tracts around cattle AFOs and 11 percent higher in areas near hog farms compared with places lacking those operations.
