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In 2006, the United Nations published Livestock’s Long Shadow, a landmark study that documented the global environmental impacts associated with livestock production (Steinfeld et al., 2006). Since then, academic studies, popular publications, and Hollywood documentaries (e.g., Cowspiracy, Before the Flood, What the Health) have conveyed the heavy burden unsustainable livestock consumption levels have on the environment and society. Despite this notable attention, there has been little effort to understand the distributive local environmental impacts, especially where burdens follow familiar lines of vulnerability. This dissertation contributes to both research and practice by addressing this critical challenge. Through five chapters prepared as journal articles, this dissertation 1) Identify and measure the location and size of ~15,700 pig and cattle CAFOs across the U.S. using high resolution remote sensing techniques, and systematically clarify their relationship to local air quality measures and the socio-demographic characteristics of adjacent communities; 2) Map a specific beef supply chain, and construct linkages with beef suppliers and sub-suppliers at high geographic specificity, and clarify supply chain’s relationship to California’s hotspot of PM2.5 and the environmental and health cost of living across the production phases of supply chains for nearby communities; and 3) Develop a new approach to quantify power structure across an entire supply chain, considering both internal and external nodes for strengthening the relationships in the chain in order to induce change to the environmental and social outcomes of the supply chain. Intellectual Merit: This dissertation represents a sustained effort to combine fields exploring Environmental Justice (EJ) with those exploring Supply Chain Governance in pursuit of a deeper knowledge of social and environmental impacts that need change. It seeks to explore avenues to reshape the future of supply chain governance by first advancing a quantitative methodology to explore gaps and inefficiencies in the governance mechanism of supply chains and then by giving compelling empirical evidence for impact reduction and improvement of environmental and social outcomes through environmental governance. Broader Impacts: This dissertation provides rigorous, evidence-based decision support to the growing number of supply chains to build a more effective governance mechanism, one that will improve the environmental and social outcomes associated with the supply chain structure. The study also contributes to the public awareness of disproportionate localized environmental burdens, and it empowers marginalized communities affected by the supply chains. |
