Architecture and Agriculture by Dewey Thorbeck

Author:Dewey Thorbeck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Research possibilities

The Center for Rural Design, along with Larry Jacoblson, Kevin Janni, and Jonathan Chaplin from the Department of Bioproducts & Biosytems Engineering at the University of Minnesota, proposed a project to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study and draft a proposed revision of the IBC covering agricultural buildings as part of the Design Guidelines for Worker and Animal Health and Safety in Animal Production Building Systems. Although not funded, the project envisioned that evidence-based design guidelines may help future animal buildings become integrated animal building systems. The design guidelines would cover all of the system components in an animal housing facility including the building shell, environmental control system, feeding and watering system, animal care and waste management, and the integration of these buildings into the rural landscape to enhance ecosystem health.

This project would have worked with individuals involved (including farmers and workers) in the current industry to identify the risks inherent in an animal agriculture facility for dairy, swine, beef, and poultry to provide design guidelines that will move animal production facilities in the U.S. toward a higher professional level to improve animal welfare and the workplace environment, enhance worker safety and health, and adjust to new environmental, social, and cultural awareness in rural regions.

Design is an effective link between science and society by using design thinking and the problem-solving process of evidence-based design to justify recommendations. Although this project would have focused on the design, construction, and operation of animal production facilities in the Upper Midwest, the research that it identified would help enhance worker safety and welfare while increasing the security of food supply throughout the U.S. – particularly if in the long run the IBC Group U – Agricultural Buildings is revised to bring these buildings into the mainstream of commercial construction.

Design guidelines are needed for commercial animal agriculture that can be disseminated through publications and a website to provide the information necessary to producer groups, building system manufacturers, insurance groups, and individual farmers to:

• help safeguard worker and animal safety and health in animal facilities for dairy, swine, beef, and poultry with design guidelines covering animal facilities in general and specific guidelines for each animal group and the various stages of production unique to that group, including odor control and manure management;

• enhance animal productivity with better understanding of safer animal handling;

• be cost competitive over building life by providing flexibility for modifications and lower operating and insurance costs;

• use more durable and environmentally friendly building components where building form follows function, climate and place;

• improve rural landscape character and fit providing more neighborly and socially acceptable and understandable housing systems;

• outline biosecurity for each animal group for food safety and human and animal health; and

• integrate applicable worker cultural, social, and housing issues into the design guidelines for animal agriculture facilities.

A result of changing demographics in rural regions is that many non-farmers and retirees are now living in agricultural areas, setting the stage for conflict when an existing farmer

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