Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Rewarding Polluters Fuels Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone
http://www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/archives/2007/06/4742_rewarding_
pollu.html?src=email&link=hed_20070629_bl4_rewardingpollutersfuelsgulfofmexi
co

A new study determines that U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing the Gulf of
Mexico dead zone. This is an area of coastal waters -- visited in MoJo's
The Fate Of The Ocean -- where dissolved-oxygen concentrations fall to less
than 2 parts per million every summer. According to a paper published at
Environmental Science & Technology Online, these findings bode poorly for
the Gulf, as more and more acres of land are planted with corn to meet the
growing U.S. demand for alternative fuels.

    Scientists studying nutrient inputs that feed the Gulf's hypoxic zone
have known that certain intensively farmed areas in the upper Midwest leak
more nitrogen derived from fertilizers than others. Now, there's a new
twist. Farmers in areas with the highest rates of fertilizer runoff tend to
receive the biggest payouts in federal crop subsidies, says Mary Booth,
lead author of the paper. What's more, they have fewer acres enrolled in
conservation programs compared with other parts of the Mississippi River
basin. Booth maintains that agricultural nitrate loading could be reduced
substantially if farmers took just 3% of the most intensively farmed land
out of production. Accomplishing this target, she adds, wouldn't require a
large increase in overall federal funding, but monies would have to be
shifted from commodity to conservation programs under the Farm Bill set to
expire in September.

Hey, a little citizen outrage via email here and here might make a
difference on this one. . .