New Paper on Non-Permitted Poultry Operations and Environmental Justice

A new paper led by Dr. Tulbure on non-permitted poultry operations has been published in GeoHealth. Dr. Júlio Caineta, current lab postdoc is a co-author.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are the source of several environmental concerns. Swine CAFOs utilize untreated animal waste on farmland, which affects nearby communities. Poultry CAFOs are not required to have federal permits, so there is limited research about their environmental impacts. Research on CAFOs thus far has relied on public records, which do not capture the actual number of these facilities.

This study refined a national map of poultry CAFOs created from a deep-learning model. The overestimate of poultry CAFO density was reduced by 54%, and over half of the misclassified locations were corrected (51.8% in North Carolina and 61.5% in the U.S.)

Spatial analysis showed that poultry CAFOs are clustered near communities with high Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) scores, especially in rural eastern NC. One-third of high poultry CAFO density census tracts in NC also had high SVI scores, with similar results throughout the South and Southeastern regions of the US. These results reveal the importance of documenting unpermitted poultry CAFOs so that further investigation of CAFOs and environmental justice can occur.

You can read the full paper here.

Social Media Buzz:

🚨 New Publication Alert! 🚨 We’re excited to share our latest work in @agugeohealth.bsky.social: 🌍 “Earth Observation Data to Support Environmental Justice: Linking Non-permitted Poultry Operations to Social Vulnerability Indices” 👉 Read here: lnkd.in/d4RMDZ2w

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— Mirela G. Tulbure, PhD (@mirelagtulbure.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 9:29 AM