{"product_id":"9780252090806","title":"Empty Pastures: Confined Animals and the Transformation of the Rural Landscape","description":"Over the past century American agriculture has shifted dramatically with small, commercial farms finding it increasingly difficult to compete with large-scale (mostly indoor) animal feeding operations (AFOs). In this book, Terence J. Centner investigates the environmental, social, economic, and political impact of the rise of the so-called factory farm, exposing the ramifications of the contemporary trend toward industrial-scale food production.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Just as Rachel Carson's landmark \u003ci\u003eSilent Spring\u003c\/i\u003e used the disappearance of songbirds as a jumping-off point for a work that raised public awareness of pesticides' devastating environmental impact, \u003ci\u003eEmpty Pastures\u003c\/i\u003e sees the dwindling numbers of livestock in the American countryside as a symptom of a broader transformation, one with serious consequences for the rural landscape and its inhabitants--animal as well as human.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e After outlining the rise of the AFO, Centner examines the troubling consequences of consolidation in animal farming and suggests a number of remedies. The issues he tackles include groundwater contamination, the loss of biodiversity, animal welfare, concentrated odors and other nuisances, soil erosion, and the economic effects of the disappearance of the small family farm.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Inspired by largely abandoned traditional practices rather than a radical and unrealistic vision of a return to an idealized past, Centner proposes a series of pragmatic reforms for regulating factory farms to halt ecological degradation and revitalize rural communities.\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"University of Illinois Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120239263984,"sku":"9780252090806","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780252090806_p0.jpg?v=1763679926","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780252090806","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}