When Good Smells Go Bad: A Sociohistorical Understanding of Agricultural Odor Pollution

Abstract

In this paper, I seek to add to the sociological and geographical literature on odor by documenting the processes through which perceptions of agricultural odors are mediated and contested. Specifically, its empirical focus is on how residents living near a large-scale hog facility within the state of Iowa actively ‘do’ smell. In doing this, this papers draws not only from the historical, anthropological, and sociological literature on odor, but also from the field of animal (rural) geography. The findings of this research are organized around the following themes: (1) rural–urban transgressions; (2) inside–outside policing; (3) ties to local social network; (4) perceptions of agriculture; (5) a sense of powerlessness; and (6) shaping smell through sight. When taken together, an understanding of agricultural odor is provided that is both active (in that it is something we ‘do’) and historical (recognizing that such ‘doing’ always occurs within a particular sociohistorical milieu).