Contact: Maridith Geuder
A Mississippi State University sociologist is joining with faculty colleagues at the University of North Carolina to present a snapshot view of Mississippi's hog industry.
Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives, Frank M. Howell of MSU and Sacoby M. Wilson, Steven B. Wing and Mark D. Sobsey of UNC's School of Public Health, used census, socioeconomic and geographic data to learn more about the areas of Mississippi where major industrial hog operations are located.
A six-times-a-year journal, Environmental Health Perspectives is published by the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.
"As a social scientist, my goal was to provide data that may help guide future policy decisions about land use and its effects on people," said Howell, a sociologist whose research specialties include spatial analysis of social data and health outcomes. The study is a follow up to similar research about North Carolina by UNC's Wing, he added.
Using spatial analysis, Howell and the research team created maps that highlight many of the social factors associated with hog production locations. When cross-referenced to census block and socioeconomic variables, the maps show that most of 67 Mississippi industrial hog operations included in the analysis are clustered in a dense corridor along the northeastern section of the state.
Howell said that business practices designed to streamline production and transportation processes may have caused unintended consequences in Mississippi and in other major hog-producing states.
"Producers understandably want to minimize costs and improve their efficiencies," Howell said. "A result is that often producers are clustered together in areas of lower-priced land, raising issues for neighborhoods and residents."
In North Carolina, Mississippi, Iowa, and other areas where hog-growing farms are located, some residents have expressed concerns about the smell, handling of effluents and potential health consequences of operations that may include more than 1,000 animals in confined areas.
Wing, an epidemiologist, said "research in North Carolina shows these operations are located mostly in low-income and black communities. Often, the communities are susceptible to health problems, in part because of reduced access to municipal water and medical care."
Howell said, however, that hog farms are not unique among industries. "Many other economic activities experience similar problems, because individuals react differently to environmental influences," he said, noting that site selection sometimes creates possibilities for some populations to become disproportionately affected.
Howell said the report's analysis highlights a major rural policy issue now being discussed at both the national and state levels. "As rural America changes, it is far less identified with 'farming' America," he observed.
Howell said other research he completed independent of this study clearly demonstrates the emergence of what is being termed "metropolitan farming"--agricultural operations on the fringes of major cities.
"One policy debate [regarding "metropolitan farming"] involves the issue of rural zoning," he said. "The primary question here is, 'Should there be rural zoning ordinances that take into consideration the populations affected and the ever-expanding uses of rural land?'"
Howell said research such as the geospatial analysis he and others are conducting can help bring additional information to the debate.
"The technology helps visualize and plan more effectively for land uses," Howell said. "Our study is important because it can help enhance the criteria for site selection."