What to Do About the Dead Zone?

by Jill Richardson · 2009-04-16 21:57:00 UTC
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The Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone. A big one. It's an area where no sea life can survive because there is no oxygen. The condition arises due to phosphorus and nitrogen runoff that flows to the Mississippi and into the Gulf. It comes from fertilizer and manure. The "excess nutrients" (I would call it pollution) allow algae to bloom. Then the algae dies and as it decomposes on the sea floor, bacteria digest it and suck all of the oxygen out of the water. That much is not news.

What is news is that the Department of Interior published a map of the U.S. showing which watersheds were most likely the biggest causes of the dead zone. We already knew that 70 percent of the runoff that causes the dead zone came from 9 states: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi. Soooo.... now that we know who's to blame, perhaps we can do something to stop it? My suggestions would be to put a moratorium on all new CAFOs in the watersheds in question, to put strict rules on spreading manure on fields so that it won't run off, to increase conservation programs (where land is taken out of production) in those areas, and to provide incentives for farmers (particularly those who grow corn) in those watersheds to convert to organic farming.

The last suggestion WILL be considered controversial by our USDA but here's my reasoning: organic farming does not allow nitrogen fertilizer like conventional does. The problem with nitrogen fertilizer is that corn crops only absorb about half of it. The rest runs off into waterways. An organic alternative to nitrogen fertilizer is planting cover crops like hairy vetch. The cover crops "fix" nitrogen into the soil and it's right where the roots of the corn will grow - right where the corn can utilize ALL of it. Ta-da! No runoff. In fact, between conversions to organics and conservation programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program (which pays farmers for using conservation techniques on their farms), I'd support a total ban on all nitrogen fertilizer in the watersheds that are most responsible for the dead zone in the Gulf. But unless we see a major shift in U.S. ag policy, that would never happen. And it really should.

(Photo credit: hlkljgk on Flickr.com)

Jill Richardson
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