Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Agriculture traditionally has been regarded as being in organic unity with nature, utilizing objects of nature in its production process and, thus, interested in maintaining the purity of nature. In the modern world, however, and especially in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR], the situation has changed fundamentally. Industrial production methods involving the use of complex and heavy-machine technology, chemicals and land reclamation now are being utilized in the agricultural sector. As a result, agriculture increasingly, together with industry, is becoming one of the factors capable of exerting an adverse anthropogenic effect on the state of the environment.

Modern collective and state farms in the Soviet Union are largescale agricultural enterprises. These powerful livestock farming complexes engage in production with the extensive application of technical and chemical means and practice soil conservation on a large scale. The further development of agriculture in this century will intensify agro-industrial integration and inter-farm cooperation by using modern agricultural technology and increasing chemical-use and land reclamation. This influences the ecological situation in the countryside; therefore, all economic, agro-engineering and agro-chemical transformations in agriculture must be as ecologically safe as possible.

Among the various means of overcoming the unfavorable ecological consequences wrought by agriculture, law is capable of establishing norms which compel its subjects to practice the most ecologically advisable behavior. The regulation of all activities interfering with the milieu of nature, including agriculture, must include an ecological imperative. An awareness of the importance and urgency of the problem of agricultural contamination now exists mostly on the doctrinal rather than the legislative level. The basic issues of environmental protection in the area of agriculture justifiably are considered to be at the level of developing or improving the legislation in force.

Various forms of agricultural activities, such as plant cultivation, livestock breeding and agricultural construction, are capable of exerting an adverse influence on all elements of our environment: land, water, forests, atmosphere and the animal world. With regard to land, agricultural practices frequently lead to the exhaustion and erosion of soil. In addition, land reclamation may hold adverse consequences for the animal world, such as the drying-up of swamps which were a feeding ground for birds and wild life or the cutting of forests to make pasture land.

This article considers the effect of agricultural production on the natural environment and the legal measures for environmental protection in this area which exist or are feasible.

Accessibility Requirements

1

Download

Share

COinS