AI for Good

Chapter 10Mapping Industrial Poultry Operations at Scale

—Caleb Robinson and Daniel Ho

Executive Summary

Annually, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are estimated to generate more than 13 times the amount of human waste. Inadequate handling of that waste can contaminate nearby lands and waterways with pathogens, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, and hormones; that contamination causes nitrogen and phosphorous runoffs, which can severely affect water quality and can result in toxic algal blooms. CAFOs are also associated with higher levels of air pollution. All of the downstream effects of CAFOs adversely impact public health and contribute to climate change.

Historically, CAFOs have been difficult to regulate, largely because of challenges identifying where CAFOs are located. To help the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state EPAs, we developed convolutional neural network models that used one meter/pixel aerial imagery data from the National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) to detect poultry CAFOs across the continental United States and to generate the first national open-source dataset of poultry CAFOs.

Why Is This Important?

While many factors contribute to climate change, current agricultural practices do so disproportionately. The entire meat-processing activity—from the planting, harvesting, and transport of feed for animals to the housing, raising, processing, and transportation of the meat—consumes energy and contributes massive amounts of ...