When the cows come home : post post-industrial urban agriculture

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the industrialization of food has become increasingly influenced by the consolidation of its controlling corporations. This consolidation has isolated meat processing facilities from small farmers, favoring corporations who have built enormous processing facilities to match their demand. Given that the consumption of beef has leveled out in the past few decades, the environmental costs of producing enough beef to meet demand continue to rise. Factory farming transforms huge tracts of land into wastelands of polluted land, and cultivates animals in unsanitary conditions. The centralization of major farming, packing, and processing facilities has left more distant, more environmentally conscious farmers to struggle with the economics of profit margins. This thesis proposes is a new model of industrial facility that can transition with changes in the industry as it moves towards a coop model from an industrial model. Its urban location pits private and public against each other in conditions that force them to negotiate a truce.