Date of Award

Spring 6-13-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Geography

Organizational Unit

College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Geography and the Environment

First Advisor

Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong

Second Advisor

Jing Li

Third Advisor

Helen Hazen

Fourth Advisor

Matthew Taylor

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), Livestock, Odor, Political ecology, Food production, Power

Abstract

In the United States today, livestock production is dominated by an intensified, industrialized production paradigm whose growth in recent decades has utterly transformed the logistical realities and community impacts of animal agriculture. This dissertation investigates the effects of this production paradigm on livestock producers—whose decision-making is shaped by multi-scalar and often contradictory forces—as well as residents living near these large operations. To do so, I draw upon mixed-methods fieldwork, including in-depth interviews, spatial analysis, and field odor measurements in Weld and Morgan Counties in northern Colorado. I also use political ecologies of emotion, embodiment, and health to examine the complex and power-laden webs of economic, social, and environmental pressures from within which livestock producers navigate the modern livestock industry as well as the ways that nearby communities make sense of the industry’s presence in their daily lives. Northern Colorado is a major cattle-producing area of the United States whose physical and cultural landscapes are profoundly shaped by the presence of large, confined animal feeding operations and the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley. This area is also of particular research value due to its proximity to growing urban areas, which has resulted in both perceived tensions and real conflict that are often framed in terms of urban/rural difference. The results of this research fortify several underdeveloped areas in the existing literature by foregrounding lived experiences of livestock producers, integrating odor measurements taken with a Nasal Ranger field olfactometer, and exploring the specific features and effects of cattle production within a particular biophysical and cultural landscape. These insights enrich human geography, agricultural studies, and political ecology in two directions simultaneously: They increase the granularity of our understanding of place-specific cattle production within the broader livestock industry while also advancing analysis of how global forces shape specific agricultural communities and landscapes. The former can be leveraged to create more effective policy tailored to specific environments and communities, while the latter invites us to grapple with ethical questions about the kinds of human-nature relationships to which we should aspire in food production.

Copyright Date

6-2025

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jecca Bowen

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

215 pgs

File Size

2.2 MB

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