Projects that Eliminate the Problem of Building Livestock Farms Near Cities

The author promised this article to V.M. Anshin, the long-time Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, who passed away prematurely. The article reveals the dire consequences that arose in the country due to the construction of large livestock breeding complexes (LBCs) near cities. The high density of livestock in LBCs has led to the emergence of excess manure, the volume of which exceeded the need for it to fertilize the fields used by LBCs. To be fair, at the time the idea of LBC was developed (the second half of the 1960s), there was no environmental movement yet. The bestselling book “Limits to Growth” by D. Meadows and his co-authors [1] was published only in 1972. [1] was published only in 1972. In the terms of D. Meadows, we can say that not just going beyond the limits of the possible, but a gigantic outburst took place. In the USA, where the idea of LBC emerged and was realized, these were simple sites for fattening cattle with concentrates, abbreviated as CAFOs. They were located in sparsely populated areas, and cattle were brought to them from surrounding farms. For this reason, the damage from excess manure in the USA affects obviously a smaller part of the population. In Russia, the picture is different — LBC is located in the most populated part of the country. It is unrealistic to move LBC to sparsely populated areas of the country. The only thing left to do is to follow the Russian proverb — to turn a need into a virtue. For this purpose, it is necessary to create manure processing facilities in each LBC as it appears, which will exclude environmental pollution. Products derived from manure processing will provide a boost to LBC's traditional revenue. Reducing the costs of pollution control and reducing the costs associated with loss of human health will increase the effects of such measures. Such possibilities are discussed in the article. The best of the technologies considered is the processing of manure by insect larvae, which would also relieve the country of protein shortages for the feed industry. In the USSR State Planning Committee, the author was responsible for organizing the development of the USSR Food Program until 1990. The author described how events were seen at that time in the brochure of the same name [2]. The issues discussed in this article were not raised. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the need for a national project to organize the processing of excess manure.