Is saving our atmosphere killing our seas? By Innovation Toronto15 December 2010Biofuels may stifle global warming, but scientists warn that agricultural runoff causes new problems Each year in April and May as farmers in the central US fertilize their crops, nearly 450 thousand metric tons of nitrates and phosphates pour down the Mississippi River. When [...]

Keep Nitrates Where They Make You Money Pointers for Keeping Your Nitrogen Where You Benefit Most By Susan Winsor, Corn and Soybean Digest 9 December 2010Crop nutrient leaching is agriculture’s dirty laundry. The corn/soybean system on tile-drained soils is blamed for the Gulf of Mexico dead zone the size of Massachusetts. “This allows fertilizer and [...]

Enviro Group Pushes For Large Farm Regulations By Interlochen Public Radio8 December 2010Large, industrial-size farms are contributing to a contaminated "dead zone" in Lake Erie, according to a new report from Environment Michigan that focuses on the impact of sewage and waste run-off from agricultural businesses. Rita Chapman, with the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra [...]

Ocean dead zones could cut tuna numbers By Australian Broadcasting Company, (ABC News)Fri Dec 3, 2010  The increasing prevalence of dead zones may have an impact on southern bluefin tuna stocks (AAP: Kerstin Fritsches, file photo) The zones are so low in oxygen that fish and other sea life cannot survive in them. Associate Professor [...]

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone: Mitigating the Damage By Chris Watts, Environmental Regulation Expert, Actio Corporation30 November 2010 As cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico continue and scientists work to understand the long-term impact of the BP oil spill on marine and coastal ecosystems, it’s becoming more clear that the world’s oceans are under [...]

Scientists fear mass extinction as oceans choke By Amy Simmons1 December 2010 Low oxygen levels, which have been found along south-eastern Australia, are known to increase stress on fish. (Reuters: Ho New) More than 400 ocean dead zones - areas so low in oxygen that sea life cannot survive - have been reported by oceanographers [...]

Seeds of Gulf Dead Zones Are Draining from U.S. Farms By Cornell University26 November 2010 Newswise — If you want to grow a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, you first need to plant a seed in the rich farmland of the upper Mississippi River basin. A study recently published in the Journal of Environmental [...]

You can stop factory farming By Weekender, NEPAs20 October 2010Factory Farming is the term used to describe an area that raises livestock in confinement for mass production and is basically operated like a factory. The point of these so-called farms is to produce as much product as possible all while running the production at a [...]

Tiles, Farms and the Dead Zone By Editorial, New York Times20 October 2010Every year, usually beginning in late spring, an oxygen-depleted dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico at the Mississippi River’s mouth, killing off fish, shrimp and other marine life. By the time cooler weather restores life to the zone, the fishing industry [...]

Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" caused by ethanol production By David Gutierrez, staff writer, Natural News.com28 October 2010Ethanol, billed by Congress as a "green fuel," may be responsible for the second-largest dead zone in the world. The foremost cause of aquatic dead zones is fertilizer runoff from agricultural operations, which leads to an explosion of [...]