Economists and urban planners generally agree that local pollution sources disproportionally impact racial minorities in the U.S. The reasons for this are largely unclear, but a University of Illinois study provides new insights into the issue. 

“Our work finds experimental evidence that racial discrimination in the home-renting process actively sorts minority renters into neighborhoods with higher levels of pollution.”

“Our work finds experimental evidence that racial discrimination in the home-renting process actively sorts minority renters into neighborhoods with higher levels of pollution,” says Peter Christensen, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) and an affiliate in Center for the Economics of Sustainability at University of Illinois.

Christensen and co-authors Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri, U of I, and Christopher Timmins of Duke University conducted an empirical study to investigate racial bias in residential sorting.

A range of social and economic factors influence the rental search process, Christensen explains. A combination of differences in information about pollution exposure, neighborhood preference, and the relationship between race and income disparity can make it difficult to isolate a specific reason why a renter ends up with a certain property. Therefore, the researchers used a correspondence experiment to isolate the effect of racial

Indiana ranks in the top ten producers nationally for blueberries, as well as corn, soybeans, peppermint, processing tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, snap beans, and cucumbers. It ranks similarly in meat production because of its rich soil, topography, and favorable rainfall and temperature patterns. Climate change, however, is bringing new challenges for farmers in the region. 

CEOS’s Ben Gramig (ACE, UIUC) worked with twelve co-authors led by Laura Bowling (Purdue) to study how projected climate change is expected to affect Indiana’s agricultural productivity and associated environmental quality. The research shows that Indiana will have warmer temperatures, increased duration and intensity of extreme heat during the growing season, a longer frost-free period, and more freeze/thaw cycles. Additionally, more intense precipitation in the spring is likely to saturate soils early in the growing season and drier summer conditions may negatively impact water availability later in the growing season. These factors make it more difficult for crops and livestock to thrive and enable weeds, pathogens, and pests to encroach on farms.

Fortunately, there are adaptation measures that can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on farms. For example, changing the cropping system to include cover crops and expanded rotations, as well as infrastructure improvements like better