Special Environmental Justice Issue on Industrial Animal Agriculture

Submission Deadline: All manuscripts should be submitted for consideration by December 31, 2021.

The Environmental Protection Agency defines animal feeding operations as agricultural enterprises where animals (beef cattle, cows, poultry, and pigs/hogs) are kept and raised in confined spaces. These operations congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Larger feeding operations, more commonly referred to as Confined or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), have at least 1,000 pounds of animals in live weight (i.e., 1,000 head of beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 swine weighing more than 55 pounds, 125,000 broiler chickens, or 82,000 laying hens or pullets). CAFOs produce more than 40 times the amount of waste product than biosolids generated from human sewage systems. CAFOs, unlike biosolid production, do not have regulatory guidelines related to pathogen level, emission, treatment, or waste disposal.

These operations are largely located in communities of color and low-wealth populations and pose an urgent environmental justice issue for local residents. People exposed to releases from CAFOs can experience respiratory effects like asthma or allergies from inhalation of contaminants like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during operation, air emissions, and spraying of waste and unregulated waste disposal. In addition, CAFO emissions negatively impact the air, water and soil, property values, and the local economy of the surrounding areas.

All manuscripts should be submitted online using the ScholarOne Manuscripts submission link by December 31, 2021. All submissions will be subject to a rigorous peer review.  We encourage submissions of the following: Research Articles; Invited Editorials; Policy Briefs; Commentaries; Review Papers; History Essays; Impact; Community Voice; Tools for Education, Empowerment and Action; Case Studies; and Methods Papers.

Suggested topic areas include, among others:

• Confined Animal Feeding Operations (type, activity, geographic issue)
• Spray fields and waste pit issues
• Meat processing activities, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Noncompliance with environmental regulations, such as the Clean Air Act, EPCRA, CERCLA, or the CWA
• Water and air quality
• Tort law (successful lawsuits, subject areas (i.e. nuisance, runoff etc.)
• Biogas
• Environmental racism and CAFOs
• Socioeconomic impacts
• Climate change and CAFOs
• Right-to-Farm laws
• Occupational exposures (worker safety issues)
• Health effects
• Federal guidelines for waste disposal
• New policy recommendations
• Corporate agriculture vs. sustainable agriculture

Visit the Journal's website to learn more, read past issues, and view author submission guidelines.

Queries to the editor to propose a topic prior to submission are encouraged. Please contact Dr. Adrienne Hollis to initiate your query or for any further details.