| Floods Further Deaden Gulf's Dead Zone |
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| Written by Kiki Hubbard | |
| Wednesday, 23 July 2008 | |
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Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse...OK, we knew it could get worse. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which we’ve told you about before, is expected to be the largest on record this year partly because of recent flooding on the Mississippi. While debate has gone on for years about the human link to global warming, no one questions the human-influenced factors behind the expansion of the dead zone. The high nutrient levels that cause oxygen counts to drop to levels too low to support life is largely driven by agricultural run-off of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, veins of excess nutrients that leak into the Mississippi and other connected waterways from farming operations thousands of miles away. We lose countless numbers of fish and other aquatic life to the byproducts of our corn- and soybean-dominated food and agriculture system. And jobs are also threatened as precious commercial and recreational fisheries dissolve in the process of oxygen-gone-algae. The nitrogen levels in the Gulf have nearly tripled over the past 50 years. It may be hard to see our connection, but it's there, right on our fork. Source: NOAA
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It's true what our moms said...we are what we eat. In fact, it's truer than they thought. What I eat doesn't just affect me anymore, it affects all of us.
Unfortunately, the story of food can sometimes be complicated. But envirovores help each other out...which is why this blog will be bringing you news, tips, and information about food and the environment every step of the way.
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