Department of Sociology
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11875/2788
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Browsing Department of Sociology by Subject "CAFOs"
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Item CAFO CONTROVERSY IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE REGION: THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS OF HOG PRODUCTION(Culture and Agriculture, 1999) Constance, Douglas H.; Bonanno, AlessandroIn this analysis we use the case of the expansion of mega hog operations in the Panhandle area of Texas to illustrate the strategies corporate actors employ to counter environmental concerns expressed by activist groups. To facilitate the growth of hogs CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), corporate actors exert their influence over state environmental agencies and eliminate public participation from quality of the environment evaluation procedures. In response, activist groups use the courts to challenge the corporate strategies on the grounds that hog CAFOs compromise the physical and social environment of their communities. Pro-business interests respond through narrowing the definition of environmentally sound agricultural activities by stressing their conformity to existing environmental regulations and highlighting the economic benefits related to job expansion and monetary donations to cooperating communities. We conclude that the concept of the environment is a contested terrain made up of competing socially created discourses which need substantive rather than formal evaluations.Item CONTESTED GLOBALIZATION OF THE AGRIFOOD SYSTEM: A MISSOURI SCHOOL ANALYSIS OF SANDERSON FARMS AND SEABOARD FARMS IN TEXAS(Southern Rural Sociology, 2009) Constance, Douglas H.The Missouri School of Agrifood Studies began with a focus on the power of agribusiness corporations in relation to quality of life of farmers and their related communities. The poultry industry was the first commodity studied, with later research into other commodity sectors and then the global dimensions of this process. In this paper I continue the Missouri School agenda by focusing on the entry of the poultry firm Sanderson Farms and the hog firm Seaboard Farms into Texas. This paper combines a sociology of the agrifood system conceptual framework with two case studies of agribusiness expansion in Texas to inform discussions regarding the characteristics of the globalization of the agrifood system. The results of the research indicate that the CAFO-based economic development strategies in Texas created significant controversies as local citizens organized to challenge the initiatives. This contested process of the globalization of the agrifood system was mediated by the state, mostly in favor of the agribusiness transnational corporations (TNCs).Item Corporate Chickens and Community Conflict in East Texas: Growers’ and Neighbors’ Views on the Impacts of Industrial Broiler Production(Culture and Agriculture, 2005) Constance, Douglas H.; Tuinstra, RenyThis paper employs a case study approach utilizing both historical and interview methods to investigate the community impacts of the industrialization and globalization of the broiler industry in East Texas. The rapid expansion of the chicken CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) created tensions and conflicts between the growers and their neighbors. While the neighbors tended to focus on substantive issues such as odor nuisances, water quality, health concerns, property values, and community disruption, the growers tended to minimized these assertions and charge the neighbors with being jealous of their economic success. The focus on grower/neighbor perceptions of the community impacts of the chicken houses contexted within a socio-historical perspective is a unique contribution to the literature.