Air-quality issues gain importance in animal agriculture

Air quality around large livestock operations has gained importance as a local, national and global policy issue, a new study led by a University of Minnesota professor shows.

The paper is the first to incorporate comprehensive current research on air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, odors and livestock housing/waste distribution practices, among other topics. Larry Jacobson, professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering at the university, led a team of experts from six universities who produced the report. It was published today by CAST, an international consortium of 30 scientific and professional societies based at Iowa State University.

Historically, environmental concerns and regulations of animal agriculture have focused primarily on water quality. But in the past 15 to 20 years, air quality issues associated with the livestock and poultry industries have become a growing public concern, leading to increased attention on enforcing air quality regulations for animal agriculture and new multimedia regulatory efforts.

"The idea behind this paper was to go beyond the generalizations," Jacobson says. "We hope that this science-based data will help stakeholders protect the environment and public health in a proactive way." One of the study’s most positive findings, he says, is that livestock producers are complying with Environmental Protection Agency requirements through combinations of new mitigation technologies and management practices that depend on the animal species, geography and industry economics.

The full text of Air Issues Associated with Animal Agriculture: A North American Perspective (Issue Paper 47, 24 pp.) may be accessed on the CAST website at www.cast-science.org.