Premium Standard Farms and the Transformation of Livestock Geography in Northern Missouri

Industrial hog farming came of age in the Carolinas in the 1980s. The 1990s was the decade of its diffusion across the American landscape. Missouri was an important stage in the spatial development of industrial pork production. One company, Premium Standard Farms, led Missouri into this new era with innovative and geographically sensitive operations in northern Missouri. Their economic successes were offset by environmental and social conflicts. Ultimately, Continental Grain Company (now known as ContiGroup Companies, Inc.) bought controlling interest in their unique operation, merging it with mainstream, urban-centered agribusiness. The result is a transformed rural landscape in a regulatory environment again resistant to change.