Putting Farmland On A Fertilizer Diet

[dogg57]

There's a simple reason why this problem is so big, and so hard to solve. Farmers have to feed their fields, before those fields can feed us. Without fertilizer, harvests would dwindle. But lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters lie downstream from highly fertilized farmland, and now they are choking to death on too much nutrition.
Those nutrients typically come from commercial fertilizer, but they don't have to. Organic growers need to feed their fields, too. Farmers can also use animal manure (which is really recycled fertilizer from the fields that fed those animals) and legumes — crops like alfalfa or chickpeas, which add nitrogen it to the soil

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...ing-farmland-on-a-fertilizer-diet?ft=1&f=1001

 

[DeepXplor]

The gulf coast of Florida is having this problem as we speak. They are keeping it out of the news. There is a severe red tide around the Naples area causing spores in the air to almost 5 miles inland. The cause? Fertilizers used on the farms. Texas has also reported that along the gulf the oysters are dying. It sounds very familier. This happens in the Chesapeake from farm run off of fertilizers.

 

[MarkBNJ]

Yeah, the Susquehanna drains almost half of Pennsylvania and a good chunk of southern New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Susq.png). Lots of fertilizer and run-off from farming and dairy operations. This was a topic of concern among watermen back when I was oystering on the bay in the mid-80's. It's continued to get worse, as far as I know. Oystering in the Chesapeake is pretty much dead at this point.

 

[ecampbell]

The Chesapeake Bay has been dead for some time now. I used to boat it. I camped at Elke Neck State Park and there were warnings not to go into the water due to bacteria.Th only fish I saw were dead. Back in 1991 there were puppy stripers everywhere we went floating dead in the water.

 

[bobpbx]

There's a simple reason why this problem is so big, and so hard to solve. Farmers have to feed their fields, before those fields can feed us.

We don't eat sod, and the way things are going, the Batsto will not look the same 50 years from now because of the sod farms. Gone will be the tea-color and clarity. It will be enriched with sod farm run-0ff and the fertilizer will allow non-native plants in along the banks. It has begun already.

 

[Gibby]

A related subject- Early this year, Governor Christie, signed into the law, the most toughest fertilizer content restrictions in the nation. The state is so densely populated, that residential fertilizer applications were have having a larger impact on water quality than what was intially thought. It isn't who is doing the fertilizing, it is the fertilizer itself. Phosphorus is now heavily restricted. This a step in the right direction. It makes what I do for a living, somewhat harder, but it is worth the extra effort, if it means a cleaner environmnent.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/healthylawnshealthywater/

 

[dogg57]

Water monitoring in Barnegat Bay and its tributaries will be stepped up next year, with five new science buoys to be deployed.
In addition, a cast of dozens — from scientists and five boat captains to volunteers — will help in the campaign to better understand the bay’s biological and chemical cycles.

http://www.app.com/article/20111221...ed-up-2012?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage