Dairy Farming and Water Quality in Wisconsin: Contributions of a Social Scientist to a Multidisciplinary Research Team
Location
Space Dynamics Laboratory
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
3-25-2004 3:20 PM
End Date
3-25-2004 3:40 PM
Description
There is increasing awareness of the contributions of livestock agriculture to nonpoint water pollution problems. In the Upper Midwest, the dairy, beef and hog industries have been linked to pervasive problems with nitrate contamination of groundwater, phosphorus runoff into surface waters, and the massive hypoxia zone identified in the Gulf of Mexico. To better understand the dynamics of nutrient losses from dairy farming in Wisconsin, a series of interdisciplinary research projects were initiated in the mid-1990s. An important component of this research involved on-farm data collection among samples of representative dairy farms. Because nutrient cycling reflects the interaction of biophysical and human processes, the author was invited to contribute social science insights to this interdisciplinary effort. This paper summarizes the diverse roles played by social scientists in this research effort, and discusses the implications for future integrated water quality research.
Dairy Farming and Water Quality in Wisconsin: Contributions of a Social Scientist to a Multidisciplinary Research Team
Space Dynamics Laboratory
There is increasing awareness of the contributions of livestock agriculture to nonpoint water pollution problems. In the Upper Midwest, the dairy, beef and hog industries have been linked to pervasive problems with nitrate contamination of groundwater, phosphorus runoff into surface waters, and the massive hypoxia zone identified in the Gulf of Mexico. To better understand the dynamics of nutrient losses from dairy farming in Wisconsin, a series of interdisciplinary research projects were initiated in the mid-1990s. An important component of this research involved on-farm data collection among samples of representative dairy farms. Because nutrient cycling reflects the interaction of biophysical and human processes, the author was invited to contribute social science insights to this interdisciplinary effort. This paper summarizes the diverse roles played by social scientists in this research effort, and discusses the implications for future integrated water quality research.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2004/AllAbstracts/41