Ethanol industry could feed potential for shrimp farming By Tim HoskinsIowa Farmer Today; December 5, 2007http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/articles/2007/12/06/top_stories/04shrimp.txt AMES --- The ethanol industry could spawn another ag industry in the Midwest.That new industry is shrimp farming. “The opportunity is huge,” says Hank Harris, Iowa State University animal science professor.Cheryl Shew, global shrimp sales specialist for Zeigler Brothers [...]

Dead zones still a threat in the GulfThe Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, LA; December 6, 2007Read the whole article, and the chat at:http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/OPINION01/712050304We are not winning the battle against dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. A decade ago, a special task force pledged to reduce the zone. While the team of government experts and environmental [...]

Despite promises, dead zone growing By Chris KirkhamTimes-Picayune, December 02, 2007http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-25/119666345479390.xml&coll=1 Little progress made halfway to deadline     A decade ago, a team of government experts and environmental researchers banded together to tackle an alarming -- and growing -- disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico.   A lifeless, oxygen-depleted band of ocean water stretching [...]

So What's So Bad About Corn? By Joel AchenbachWashington Post; November 23, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/22/AR2007112201442.html?hpid=topnews NEVADA, Iowa -- To say that corn is king around here is to come close to demoting it. In the last couple of weeks, the farmers of this state finished harvesting an astonishing 14 million acres of corn, which is more [...]

Action plan targets Mississippi pollution By Kate Martin edie.net; November 22, 2007http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=13827&channel=0 An action plan for improving water quality and reducing nutrient pollution in one of the world's longest rivers has been published. The plan aims to reduce high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in the Mississippi A special task force, chaired by the US [...]

State must act on 'dead zone' By Times PicayuneNovember 12, 2007 The National Research Council recently issued a report on water quality in the Mississippi River, which governs hypoxia (the "dead zone") in the Gulf. In brief, while industrial point sources of pollution have been reduced under the Clean Water Act, little or no progress [...]

WATER POLLUTION: U.S. plan for Mississippi River asks states to do more By Daniel Cusick, Greenwire reporterGreenwire; November 21, 2007http://www.eenews.net/gw/ States would bear primary responsibility for curbing pollution that sweeps off farms and streets in the Mississippi River Basin under a new federal plan for addressing a vast "dead zone" for marine life in the [...]

Nutrients, Fla.'s red tide menace tied By Amy WoldThe Advocate, Nov 15, 2007 http://www.2theadvocate.com/columnists/insidereport/11333756.html Nutrients from fertilizer or urban runoff that travel down the Mississippi River are widely accepted as causing the annual summer low-oxygen "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana. Now it appears those nutrients play a role in the recurring "red tide" [...]

The National Research Council urged the U.S. EPA to take a more aggressive role in implementing the Clean Water Act. By Series of News Articles about National Research Council Report on Mississippi River and Clean Water ActOctober 2007For the full  National Research Council Report on Mississippi River and Clean Water Act please go to:http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12051 [Associated [...]

Nitrogen Fertilizers Deplete Soil Organic CarbonScience Daily; October 30, 2007http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071029172809.htm ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2007) — The common practice of adding nitrogen fertilizer is believed to benefit the soil by building organic carbon, but four University of Illinois soil scientists dispute this view based on analyses of soil samples from the Morrow Plots that date back [...]