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The recent acceleration in the trend toward a more "industrialized" structure in the U.S. animal agriculture section, especially in areas within the Southern region, has generated substantial concerns on the part of those affected by the changes, and serious conflicts in a number of local areas. Questions are being raised as to how far private rights extend with respect to adoption of production systems that are perceived to generate environmental risks, nuisance impacts on neighbors, and social impacts on rural communities. The concerns, conflicts, and questions have led to a good bit of policy debate and legislative activity at the local and state levels. Agricultural economists have a key role to play in providing information to participants in the issue through their research, teaching and extension activities, with a view to fostering good decisions and conflict resolution.

To facilitate this, the Southern Region Information Exchange Group (SRIEG-10) for Natural Resource Economics held a workshop in Atlanta, Georgia on May 22, 1997. The workshop sought to involve specialists from within and outside the field of agriculture economics who could address various dimensions of the issue. Perspectives were provided on economic, technical, political, and legal dimensions in the four morning presentations. The first afternoon presentation discussed the potential application of strategies for collaborative problem solving and conflict resolution to the issue at hand. This and the other afternoon presentations also outlined general principles and procedures for implementing such strategies to natural resource issues of various sorts. This publication is a compilation of the formal papers resulting from the presentation at that workshop.