This document is the result of a two year process that has been realized in Iowa in order to provide the best available scientific answers to citizen and producer questions and concerns about large scale swine production. The process started with a regional/national conference on Livestock production for sustainable rural communities and producer surveys to collect the concerns/questions. Scientific workshop were than organized to responds to the questions/concerns with representative of from Iowa’s University. An interdisciplinary scientific workshop was than held to give answesr to the concerns/questions and the proceedings were prepared. The proceedings are divided in chapters in order to discuss by many scientists chosen nationwide different aspects related to the swine industry. Those chapters are: water quality, air quality, social isues, economic development and occupational health. In each of these chapters, the concerns/questions are answered directly, conclusions are drawn and the research needs are expressed.