can't the fish just hold their breathe?

[Guest guest]

Deader Than Ever

Biofuels could contribute to historically big Gulf of Mexico dead zone

 

Still think corn-based biofuels will save the world? Here's another piece of

the no-they-won't puzzle: Researchers say more intensive farming of more land in

the Midwestern U.S. -- in part a result of the push for more corn production --

could contribute to the largest-ever " dead zone " in the Gulf of Mexico this

summer. The zone is created when fertilizer and other runoff find their way down

the Mississippi River and into the gulf, encouraging algae to grow. The algae's

decay process sucks up all the available oxygen, leaving none for the poor

little fishies. Last year's dead zone was 6,662 square miles; scientists

modeling the zone for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say

this year's could be as big as 8,500 square miles. " I am anticipating a

historically large [dead zone] this summer, " says Eugene Turner from Louisiana

State University, noting that the change could be due to weather, love of

biofuels, or other farming practices. Tom Philpott surveys the unseemly scene in

Gristmill.

 

 

Gulf Dead Zone: Bigger than ever

Posted by Tom Philpott at 12:14 PM on 17 Jul 2007

Read more about: ethanol | agriculture | industrial ag | biofuels | oceans |

water pollution

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U.S. farmers planted 92.9 million acres of corn this spring, a 15 percent-plus

jump from last year. If you lumped all that land together -- not too hard to

imagine, given that corn ag is highly concentrated in the Midwest -- you'd have

a monocropped land mass nearly equal in size to the state of California.

 

 

The jump in corn acreage is excellent news if you own shares in mega

meat-processing firms like Tyson and Smithfield. These firms have been

complaining bitterly that the price of corn, driven up by the government-induced

ethanol boom, will eat into their profits. (Corn is the preferred feed of CAFO

operators, if not of the animals they confine.)

 

The California-sized corn planting is expected to deliver the largest corn

harvest in U.S. history, which will likely drive corn prices down a little.

 

But the corn boom absolutely sucks if you live in a fishing community along the

Gulf Coast -- or if you happen to be a fish who makes a home in those troubled

coastal waters.

 

Researchers projected [PDF] Monday that the Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone, like

this year's corn harvest, will likely be the largest ever recorded.

 

 

According to major ag policy-makers in D.C., farmers' decisions to plant as much

corn as possible -- often on environmentally fragile land previously kept fallow

for conservation purposes -- was a farsighted and rational move.

 

The explosion in corn plantings " further confirms that production and usage of

biofuels can boost farm income, economic growth and jobs in rural communities

while enhancing America's energy security, " enthused Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa),

chair of the Senate ag committee.

 

The news drew similar raves at USDA headquarters. " It's just incredible, " gushed

the agency's chief economist Keith Collins. He added hopefully that the huge

corn crop should " give livestock feeders some relief. "

 

But while Tyson and Smithfield execs breathe easier, fishing communities along

the Gulf Coast are bracing for disaster.

 

That's because growing corn in vast monocultured fields requires heavy doses of

synthetic nitrogen, but all of that fertilizer doesn't end up in corn plants. A

good bit of it washes into streams which feed into the Mississippi River, then

to be carried clear down to the Gulf.

 

In a process known as hypoxia, all of that free nitrogen feeds a giant algae

bloom, which ties up oxygen and destroys most life underneath: hence the " Dead

Zone. "

 

According to a report (linked above) by researchers R. Eugene Turner of LSU and

Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana University Marine Consortium, preliminary

measures of nitrogen passing into the Gulf through the Mississippi, taken in

May, augur the biggest Dead Zone ever recorded.

 

" Hypoxia as a large-scale phenomena was unlikely to have occurred before the

1970s, " the researchers write. The Dead Zone's emergence roughly coincides with

the age when Earl " Rusty " Butz, Nixon's ag czar, ruled the USDA with an iron

fist. Butz famously used the power of his office to prod farmers to plant

" fencerow to fencerow, " with as much fertilizer as required to produce bumper

crops. That policy has been in place ever since.

 

Thirty odd years later, we're still allowing our government to sacrifice the

Gulf's biodiversity, along with the livelihoods of surrounding fishing

communities, to produce dubious fuel and ghastly meat.

 

The mind reels.

 

 

 

 

For story: Gulf Dead Zone: Bigger than ever

 

 

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