Engagement of government agencies with environmental public health issues surrounding industrial food animal production in eight states: An example of environmental public health systems research

Industrial food animal production (IFAP), the dominant form of meat production in the U.S., involves housing thousands of animals in close quarters. Evidence of environmental public health concerns resulting from community exposures to air releases and water pollution from these operations continues to accumulate. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of health departments, environment and natural resource departments (the agencies responsible for permitting large IFAP sites), and agriculture departments in responding to citizens' environmental health concerns stemming from IFAP operations. Instead of interviewing staff at just one type of government agency, the study followed an environmental public health systems approach by including the main government agencies that may be involved in these issues. This approach allowed the researchers to discern gaps in state and local agency responsibilities and resources that affect agency responses to environmental public health issues associated with IFAP. We investigated the extent to which health concerns associated with IFAP sites are reported to these agencies, the nature of agencies’ involvement with preventing or responding to these concerns, and challenges to addressing these concerns. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were held with staff members of county and state health departments, state permitting agencies, state agriculture departments, and community members in eight states with high densities (or rapid growth in number) of IFAP operations. The interview data reveal that government agency involvement in these matters is limited by political barriers, a lack of jurisdiction, and finite resources, expertise, and staff. Community members reported difficulties in getting agencies to respond to their concerns about environmental public health issues associated with IFAP. The findings from this study may inform future education or training efforts and policy measures aimed at expanding agencies’ capacities to address gaps in environmental public health protection. 
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