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Pork Production

Pork production is an important component of American agriculture and an important part of the American diet and way of life. Fewer than100,000 farms were producing pork in 2000 with production is concentrated in the Corn Belt states and in North Carolina.

Modern pork production is mostly done in enclosed buildings to protect animals from the weather, from predators and from the spread of diseases. While larger operations enabled farmers to significantly increase the efficiency of production using less labor, it resulted in environmental challenges with larger amounts of manure concentrated in a small area.

This module will look at pork production as it has evolved over the past 300 years in the U.S., at the economic value of pork to the U.S. and American agriculture and at typical production and manure handling systems in use today.

Additional Information
Livestock and Poultry Environmental Stewardship (LPES) Curriculum Exit EPA (joint EPA/USDA project)
A national curriculum and supporting educational tools for livestock and poultry industry advisors to help producers achieve environmentally sustainable production systems.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) Fact Sheets Exit EPA (joint EPA/USDA project)
A collection of 24 publications that address questions that educators and producers are most likely to have about the CAFO regulations and how they will affect livestock and poultry production facilities.

This page is sponsored by EPA's Ag Center. Ag Center logo

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