One of the main attractions during my childhood visits in Iowa was going to “see the bison”. This meant a thirty minute drive from the farm to a small, grassy enclosure which held a pair of live bison. The look of them surrounded by fences beyond which loomed the crops of those who displaced them, idling in a re-creation of their former habitat was disappointing as a child and disheartening now. The fact that Iowa was once a fertile prairie full of such majestic wildlife as the bison is hard to believe when you look around at it today with its mono-cultures and synthetic fertility. Few things break the monotony of corn in my grandfather’s county, with the exception, of course, of soybeans, and it is pretty amazing that it is essentially all thanks to chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels.
The readings this week have got me thinking about many things, but mostly water quality. Large scale agriculture takes a serious toll on our freshwater resources, in terms of both water usage for irrigation and the pollution of our waterways. I was raised on the Wakulla River just a few miles from Wakulla Springs State Park. In my lifetime I have seen drastic changes in the quality of the water at the spring. I remember when the water in the swimming area was crystal clear and the glass-bottom boats were always running. Now the nitrate pollution has put an end to that. The water is often a murky green, full of algae and choked up with invasive hydrilla which is wreaking havoc on the native species, and the glass-bottom boats don’t run most days due to poor visibility. Years ago I remember hearing the warnings to parents at the park to keep their infants away from the water due to the risk of blue baby syndrome. In this case nitrate pollution from chemical fertilizers is only part of the problem, the Tallahassee spray fields, where treated wastewater has been used to irrigate a few thousand acres of crops, is the real issue, as the nitrates in the water drain through the soil and straight into the aquifer.
One of the things I found disturbing while reading the first few chapters of Omnivore’s Dilemma was Pollan’s illustration of how farmers use excessive amounts of fertilizer, more than can be absorbed by their crops, as a kind of insurance policy. Better safe than sorry I guess, but that doesn’t seem quite right when that excess fertilizer ends up someplace like Des Moines’ drinking water.
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI think you've brought up some really insightful comments, especially about the overuse of fertilizers and how they're unsustainable use is causing so much disruption in the natural ecosystem of the Wakulla. I learned a few semesters ago about studies that have been done that show just how quickly most of the water bodies in Tallahassee connect back to the Wakulla. I don't recall who conducted them, but it was the Wakulla Springs Alliance that had brought up how someone had used dye out of Lake Jackson and various other springs in Leon county to see how long it took to get into Wakulla springs. It's amazing how quickly water travels and how immensely water can be impacted from a few ignorant choices.
I think the water travels particularly quickly here due to the limestone geology. When I was growing up people from what may have been the Wakulla Springs Alliance would come to my school with models of our aquifer and demonstrate how surface pollutants like motor oil and fertilizer could easily run off into rivers and lakes and seep through the limestone into the groundwater. It's just a shame that fresh water is so often taken for granted within our food system, when it is of the utmost importance to our survival.
DeleteI agree that farmers probably use too much fertilizer on their crops. I would support a law that regulates how much fertilizer a farmer is allowed to use per acre. If that law already exists, I would like to see the fertilizer limit be lowered. I ultimately hope that farmers would start to replenish their soil using natural methods, but it would be hard to convince most farmers to do this because it takes much longer and is less efficient, which costs them more money.
ReplyDeleteI am not from the area, but it is interesting to hear about the Wakulla Springs dilemma. What intrigues me is that even though there is physical change that is easy to see, we still mostly ignore the problems of water. And in your example, this has happened fairly recently in your lifetime, meaning that the change is so rapid that it should be alarming folks. I see this as a good example of how we in America wait until the last minute to correct our problems, especially when it involves the environment. A nation of procrastination I suppose.
ReplyDeleteNOTE: I must admit that I am a procrastinator myself.