Gulf of Mexico Now Largest Dead Zone in the World, and Factory Farming Is to Blame
 

As reported by CBS Miami, nitrogen fertilizers and sewage sludge runoff from factory farms are responsible for creating an enormous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. As fertilizer runs off farms in agricultural states like Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and others, it enters the Mississippi River, leading to an overabundance of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, in the water.

This, in turn, leads to the development of algal blooms, which alter the food chain and deplete oxygen, resulting in dead zones. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest recorded dead zone in the world, beginning at the Mississippi River delta and spanning more than 8,700 square miles — about the size of New Jersey.

Needless to say, the fishing industry is taking a big hit, each year getting worse than the last. The featured news report includes underwater footage that shows you just how bad the water quality has gotten.

Gulf of Mexico - Largest Dead Zone in the World

CBS is not a trustworthy source of facts although pollution is surely occurring. Overpopulation is the problem, of course. Too many mouths to feed. Look at China's pollution problem!

Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ is the largest ever measured | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

what is it you propose?

CBS presented some facts on Sunday night that had a pretty big impact in DC today.

Since most major news outlets rarely give all the facts, but instead prefer to fuel a particular fire it has become increasingly difficult to ascertain what is really happening and the causes.

IMO Since the revolution of renewable fuel the midwest has been stripped of forestry to plant corn. Google earth and you will stripping of North American. All that run off flows south down ALL river tributaries to the gulf polluting gulf, rivers, ponds and wetlands along the way. Government subsidies to produce renewable energy so they can say we're saving the environment. Which IMO is bull ****. IMO tree will be rare site in the Midwest in few years. From 1965 to today IMO 60% forestry in the Midwest has be bulldozed for corn fields. I don't think the rest will survive another 50 years as demand for corn and soybeans increase.

What do you suggest that farmers do?
People need food and farmers grow it and fertilizer is needed. Man does not live by fish alone. Also, most people eat chicken too. Are you a PETA?

Why do farmers use fertilizers? | Soils Matter, Get the Scoop!

There is no shortage of people who see problems
 

There is no shortage of people who see problems. SOLUTIONS are the hard part.

RE: corn
I read somewhere that 80% of the calories in the US comes from corn. If, you wonder how that can be realize that cattle are fattened on corn, pigs are fed corn, the chickens are fed corn and I expect farm raised fish are fed corn.
It is interesting that we would not even recognize wild corn. Corn has been hybridized by man going back to the Indians-before the Europeans or the Vikings or? found the place. The corn we use for food is so hybridized that it cannot live without a farmer. We grow GMO corn in places where previous varieties would never produce.
RE:solution
When, I was born, there were 180 million people in the US. Today there are 350 million. That is two times the people in my lifetime. Not only do all of these people need more food but due to housing, there is far less farmland available

So far science has found solutions. Will it end with SOYOLENT GREEN?

Don't forget corn syrup is used in lieu of cane sugar in many products because it is so cheap.

This is and always has been the case
 

Researched and based on experience-my father used to work for CBS news.

In the 1960's 49 companies owned the major news sources. Today it is five. Interesting fact is that DISNEY is one of the top owners. For me, it reminds me of the book 1984. Much of the,"news," is not original reporting but is government dispensed-big brother. Of the five major news OWNERS four are left wing and Fox is right wing.

All information has a spin to it. You and I only report/repeat things that agree with what is important to what we know or think we know.

You/we would hope that who owns the news source would not effect what we are informed about or the spin placed on the story. IN THE REAL WORLD, this is of course not true.

The OP talks about dead zones in the gulf of mexico and blames it on farmers fertilizers. Of course they add to problems. The article blames the farmers. The fact is WE use far more fertilizers, insecticides, weed killers, WATER, fungicides on our LAWNS then a farmer could possibly use PROFITABLY

Crop Rotation
 

"Dead zones occur throughout the world and persist through the summer until plunging water temperatures — and often hurricanes — mix oxygen back into the depths each fall. The hundreds of dead zones throughout the world cover nearly 100,000 square miles, with one in the Baltic Sea spanning more than 23,000 square miles several years ago. Collectively, nearly 10 million tons of biomass either moves from or dies in dead zones every year."

"But dead zones can be reversed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, nutrient runoff was reduced threefold to fourfold, eliminating a 15,000-square-mile dead zone off the northwest continental shelf of the Black Sea.

A dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay also has shrunk in recent years, Magnien said, because of major advances in wastewater treatment, sediment and storm water controls, soil management practices, and more selective and precise applications of fertilizer.

Matt Liebman, who studies cropping systems at Iowa State University, is hopeful that a shift in agricultural practices in the Midwest could make a big difference for the Gulf of Mexico. In a study published this year, his team showed that runoff could be reduced by 60 percent if farmers growing corn and soybean rotated in one or two more crops."

"In addition to rotating crops, Liebman found, “less productive areas could be converted into crop and non-crop vegetation that provides conservation benefits.” A previous Iowa State study showed that converting just 10 percent of farmland back to native prairie grass could reduce nitrogen and phosphorous runoff by nearly 90 percent.

“I’m optimistic that we have a lot of technical answers,” he said, but “we need a market pull and a policy push.”

"Such policy changes could include regulations, financial incentives for farmers to adopt conservation practices, and technical assistance to help farmers incorporate the changes."

The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is larger than ever. Here’s what to do about it. - The Washington Post

-----------------------------------------

Back in the 1940s in elementary school in Dallas, Texas, I was taught about the benefits of contour farming, and crop rotation. Perhaps it is time for "modern farmers" to learn the same lesson.

And your information right there ends the discussion for me. We all know what to do; what would work. Getting people to agree to do it, both farmers and legislators, is the real problem.

That's interesting information.

Perhaps crop rotation would cost a lot more?

Perhaps then we would have to pay a lot more for our Wheaties and our green beans?

Perhaps then the poor would suffer.

And all of the new mouths to feed that have immigrated in the last couple of years?

I don't know. Maybe it costs the same.

Farmers are real people.

I don't see anybody rotating their lawns.

Were gonna pay a heckuva lot more if we just ignore the problem.