18 pages, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are known to have a wide range of negative impacts upon nearby residents and communities. Therefore, the siting of such operations in economically underdeveloped rural communities is an important environmental justice issue. This study explores the environmental conflict that surrounded a proposed CAFO in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. In this struggle, an outside corporation attempted to site a new CAFO in a community that was highly divided on the issue. We draw complementary insights from the environmental justice, stakeholder theory, and rural studies literatures to explain how the opponents of the CAFO were ultimately able to successfully resist the unwanted land use. This theoretical framework treats the formation of environmental inequalities as a process of conflict among diverse parties in which the potentially impacted communities may strongly influence the eventual outcome. Through interviews with key stakeholders and analysis of local and state media sources, we examine the primary points of contention within the local community along with the relative claims making and discursive strategies employed by each side. The findings of this study imply that how rural communities construct their identity and define potential environmental hazards are central to deciding environmental conflicts.
4 pages., Online via Directory of Open Access Documents (DOAJ)., In interviews, "...a group of 'conservation-minded' Illinois farmers revealed that while they are not necessarily familiar with the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS), they are concerned with nutrient loss and are taking steps to address those concerns." However, authors observed that added efforts may be required to encourage adoption of the best management practices recommended by the strategy. The study also identified information sources farmers trust in making such decisions.
McCallum, David B. (author) and Anderson, Laurel (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C18301
Notes:
Pages 237-262 in Roger E. Kasperson and Pieter Jan M. Stallen (eds.), Communicating risks to the public: international perspectives. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. 481 pages.
15 pages., Via online journal., Preliminary results of a survey investigating individual well-being of residents in the
Great Barrier Reef region of Australia are presented. The well-being factors were
grouped into domains of: society, representing family and community issues; ecology, representing natural environment; and economy, dealing with economic issues
and provision of services. The relative perceived importance of factors was quantified, allowing for a creation of individual well-being functions. In the society domain,
family relations and health were identified as the most important contributors to
well-being. Water quality was the ecology domain factor that received highest
scores, and health services and income were the most important contributors to
the economic domain. The methodological approach used in this study has a potential to integrate ecological, social, and economic values of local people into
decision-making processes. The profiles of well-being thus generated would present
policymakers with information beyond that available from standard data sources.
Via Food Safety Network. 2 pages., Describes a program designed to encourage farmers to take "positive approaches to help protect the environment and keep peace with their neighbors."
