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Water Use In Confined Animal Feeding Operations (Cafos) In Minnesota: Who’S Keeping Track?, Dara Meredith Fedrow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are highly concentrated feedlots that raise large numbers of livestock with an emphasis on efficiency and maximizing output. Hog and dairy feedlots in Minnesota are shrinking in number, yet growing in size. In hand with the rise of CAFOs, water scarcity is a growing concern as the effects of climate change worsen and the human population increases. Though Minnesota is a state of abundant water, it is not evenly distributed throughout the state raising concerns about sustainable water usage.

This paper describes and analyzes how Minnesota’s water appropriation permit system is overseeing water usage in …