Techniques for improving yield of livestock involve risks because of the concentration of waste products as the numbers raised in one place increase

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

I still remember driving past a feedlot for cattle on Interstate 80 in Nebraska. I
could smell a very strong ammonia smell for at least 3 minutes before arriving, and
continued to smell it long after driving by. The concentration of animals was that smelly!
About 820 Mt of animal waste is generated in the United States every year. There have been
severe problems when retaining dams on lagoons have broken and wastes have escaped into
local streams. North Carolina has almost four thousand such lagoons. Researchers at North
Carolina State University, who are working on five technologies to reduce the environmental
impact of hog waste, said "Waste from large hog and poultry farms has been blamed for
polluting surface waters, contaminating wells, creating noxious odors, and discharging
ammonia into the air. Treatment and disposal of the waste costs farmers tens of millions of
dollars each year." Interestingly from the viewpoint of Chapter 23, one of these ideas
involves using anaerobic digestion on a large scale.