These days the farmers are contaminating other peoples water supplies with this liquid waste from cattle and such. They use a small field as a waste dump....dumping on it 3 times a week at times and then it gets into the water. But the farmers are protected to do this. In fact it was the governments mandate as I understand it. Never had a problem with solid manure though. Also there are a couple of dozen days a year now where no one want to go outside because the oder is so bad. I am talking a whole towns worth of people that are effected.
Agribusinessmen (not what I or most think of as farmers)who raise huge numbers of cattle or hogs or chickens in small areas, are about as far from being good stewards of the land as you could get. They constantly strive for "efficiency" which is promoted by the gov't and people's demand for cheap food. The old-time handling of solid waste has given way to mechanized systems that use lots of water to move the same amount of feces with little labor. Obviously the soil can accept only so much at one time.
I think the farmers who had deep respect for nature have been squeezed out by a system that doesn't take ALL the costs into consideration.
"Organic" farmers do a much better job of leaving the enviroment in good shape for future generations but few wish to pay the higher prices for their products AND many gov't programs actually work against those who don't use lots of chemicals. The American farmer of the 1950s probably had it as good as anyone because he could support his whole family on a modest well-run 80 acres,well,east of the Mississippi, anyway.