Achievement

Trainee Kathryn Anderson completed a pilot study comparing European approaches to regulating water pollution from livestock agriculture. From June-August of 2011 she interviewed 60 stakeholders involved in managing agricultural pollution in Brittany, France; Gelderland, Netherlands; and central Poland. These sites have similar livestock sectors, similar excesses of nitrogen and phosphorus in soils and streams, yet contrasting nutrient management policy approaches. Preliminary results suggest that, while many of the causes of livestock-related eutrophication are similar in these countries (concentration of animals, political and economic pressure from global agribusiness, local political inertia), successful control of this pollution requires supra-national political authority, provided by the EU, coupled with third-party auditing and enforcement. Initial results from this study were presented at the 2011 Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology in Chania, Greece.