Title:
What are the Effects of Hog CAFOs on Local Black Communities in North Carolina?
Author(s):
Kiah Dale
Department:
Political Science
Faculty Mentor(s):
Ashley Moraguez
Abstract / Summary:
A large number of industrial hog farms have popped up throughout North Carolina without developers thinking about the health effects they may have on the communities nearby, especially communities of color. The research presented today looks into the health effects of Hog CAFOs or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. It theorizes that life expectancy will go down for local communities near hog CAFOs and that black communities will be more affected than white communities. This is because CAFOs are often placed on cheap land and white communities often have the means to move away from the industrial farms. To test the hypothesis, life expectancy of both the Black and White populations as the dependent variables, and hospital bed capacity, poverty rates, and uninsured rates as control variables. The variables are tested with hog numbers per ten thousand people and then again with hog farms per ten thousand people as the independent variables. The results found that there is a positive effect of being near hog farms, which was not consistent with my expectations. However, the results were not substantially or statistically significant. These puzzling results suggest that more work should be done to understand these dynamics.
Publication Date:
Jan-9-2024
Documents: