Abstract

Much as developing countries have been saddled with unwanted incinerators, refineries, waste dumps, or dangerous assembly sectors in an era of global outsourcing, a great many U.S. rural communities have in the last decade and a half found themselves face-to-face with massive industrial livestock complexes. This article examines the alliances that emerged in opposition to corporate livestock complexes including farm and rural community associations and environmental organizations. This study of anti-factory farm campaigns in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri examines the circumstances under which broad-based coalitions opposing powerful corporate interests emerge, and what such alliances do and do not achieve under given institutional circumstances.