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Pardon me, Newbie?

Since when is a scientific article about the damage that overfertilization does considered to be SPAM.

Good post anney, don't let those with diminished mental capacity get you down!

shiggle

They don't get me down!

I suppose it's the commercial farming operations that cause the worst pollution that this author mentions -- the midwest corn regions are cited in the article as being the source of much of the damage to the Gulf of Mexico.

I also lived at the Jersey Shore for about 25 years, and there was a five-mile square area right off Sandy Hook Beach, a national park area, that was a "dead zone", too. That was where New Jersey and New York dumped their sewage and garbage and released their toxic chemicals and industrial heavy metals. I never saw farm runoff mentioned as being a source though. It was NASTY and dangerous stuff, including human and animal body parts from hospitals and slaughterhouses. The last I heard, it had been cleaned up and now supports life again. It can be done with enough government attention and control when people and companies won't voluntarily do the right thing.

Don't worry Anney, some people just can't help the smallness of their minds! (I mean, a four letter word is hardly a reasoned arguement against anything.) Although farmers certainly have been culprits over the years where fertilizer run-off is concerned, suburban lawns and garedns are certainly a large contributor in certain areas. And I think it is entirely appropraite to bring up the matter here!

I also expect that many people will disagree. Some because they don't like to feel that they have inadvertantly been guilty of doing something "wrong", others because they don't like change, others to be ornery... It's rather like the way the public greeted the news that cigarette smoking was bad for your health! After all, the reasoning goes, how can it be so bad if we've been doing it for years and all those ads on TV (magazine, newspaper, radio, internet) never imply that anything could be bad about it either... and aren't I a bad, trashy person if I don't have a smooth, green, lawn?

Of course, fertilizers (and pesticides) are big business. And the point of big business is rarely public welfare and health, but rather the pursuit of the almighty dollar. And nobody realized it was bad until they tried to track down the causes of these large problems. But now we do know what the cause is and we can be part of the solution! I live in the Chesapeake watershed and I use only organic fertilizers and compost (which are lower in dose, and travel less through the ground/water) because I love eating boiled blue crabs in summer and boy would it be a shame if they were all gone! Among other reasons...

So thanks for bringing up what may become a vigorous topic here! Cheers!

Sunni

But I gotta say... nice SPAM picture! Though I wish I could see the other side of that can so I could get the details on their "get spam stuff" offer. Sounds like a sweet deal.

Good info anney. ;) Especially since most home gardeners way over-fertilize annually while you-know-who (whose initials are MG) giggles all the way to the bank.

We can't lay it all off on the farmers, commercial AG enterprises, golf courses, and lawn lovers. Gardeners contribute to the problems too.

Dave

Good post Anney and good information.

Not the midwest, but growing up in Baltimore we did a lot of school programs in the Chesapeake Bay--we did a week away at nature camp on the bay and one of the things that stuck out at me enough that I still remember it clearly is the major fertilizer pollution problem in the bay. Maybe that is why they taught us young! We learned how to go out and test the light in the water. Fertilizer encourages mass algae growth which choked out light to underwater vegetation, causing a chain reaction in the entire ecosystem. I still have a picture of 10 year old me in waders out on water completely covered in a layer of thick green topgrowth.

Even if you are the sort that only looks at the bottom line, this is at the expense of the fishing industry.

What really fascinated 10 year old me was I always thought fertilizer makes things grow therefore more is always good. It isn't even pure carelessness, it is naivety. A lot of people have that same fertilizer=good logic, because they weren't lucky enough to have someone show them how it really works. I've met plenty of people who scoff at planting a tree as some hippie poo, but that was really a big part of watershed restoration, just making a buffer for farm runoff. It is something people can do in anywhere in any watershed, every creek and drain ends up somewhere bigger.

The point of all my rambling is thanks Anney for posting this!

This is a great post. Everyone needs to think about what we do. Also who's intials are MG?

Maybe this article just points up the need to have our soil tested every couple of years to see just what our fertilizing needs actually are. Whether our plants are in-ground or in containers also makes a difference, and for containers, open-draining or self-watering. A reservoir of water that catches fertilizers that flow through the soil and then is recycled to the plant (self-waterers) is really a more efficient use of fertilizer than open drainage, though I'm guilty of using a few open drainage containers myself.

And I agree that the responsibility for judicious fertilizer use lies with each of us as home gardeners, whom I lump in with farmers in my thinking!

Even if we live far from rivers and creeks and other bodies of water that eventually flow into oceans, elements of fertilizers unused by plants can end up polluting groundwater. If there were not so many human beings enthusiastically fertilizing lawns and farms and gardens and golf courses, etc., it probably wouldn't be such a big problem.

Maybe it's a simple case of "less is better" for us to do our part.

gardener

MG = Miracle Grow!

Thanks Anney. Duh. While I was working in the garden today it hit me. Talk about feeling dumb. LOL Although I have used a bit of MG on my flowers this year ( had some left from last year) I am commited if at all possible to using organic methods this year. However I have a lot of improvement to do to my soil.

good info, I have been using chemicals, as I was new to the states, knew no-one and moved into our house in September, so no compost, I have started a pile starting with the leaves!!, and have been trying to find more pallets so I can create more...I may have found a source, in the shape of a mass horder I meet on saturday, but it was his wife offering, she even showed me them, and said I could take them at the end of the BBQ, but as a bit of a horder myself knew, best to ask him!, and never got the chance, anywho (sic)
I have been using way less than they suggest, and doing sq foot, which advicates peat moss, I have used it, but not in the quanties suggested, as I am feeling bad!
hopefully I will never have to use the chemicals again and can sustain myself next year, I have also planted lots of peas and runner beans, to help with nitrogen here and there and I am also looking at green maneurs.
Also at the BBQ they had tons and tons of well rotted manuer from their horse who died 2 years ago, I am waiting to ask on that, as they had 40+ fruit trees to plant, other than that no garden.
I am not "organic! but I like to use nature as much as I can as I remember the ladybird/bug invastion of 76,77,78? only remember it, as a little girl they where everywhere, and my Dad and Pops, where on cloud nine as surprise, surprise, these huge numbers of ladybirds happened during the worst aphid problem they had ever encountered, and solved their problems.
just to ask, do you have and environmental agency in the States? I was a nurse in Occupational Health in the UK and alot of our degree centred on environmental impact, and health? and our proffesor (I worked for, not studied under) had spent a large part of his medical profession in the US and used the environmental disasters, he worked on in the US to teach us in house...he was part of some sort of quick response team?...Oh maybe answered my own question???

Heather, the environmental agency you're thinking of here is the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). However, as a doctor working on environmental disasters such as floods and so on, I'd guess he was working with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)

yer all right cleaver clogs, I missed out a word! and no, he didn't work on natural disasters, his where all chemical, business orientated, as we where are all, (occupational) once he showed pictures of was of a chemical plant and for the life of me, I can't remember the details?, I just remember the picture of a campervan on its side with holes shot through it, and the land around just...well ground zero it was an agrochemical plant I believe?

I found it, it as been driving me NUTS! had to hunt through my old notes and Wiki has it, don't you love it? mentions OSHA (Environmental Safety and Health Administration).
Bet you have all lost interest? but it was sending me potty! and now I have to tell someone! :)
Us Occy Health types don't just hand out Band Aids and pain killers (in fact we didn't actually do that at all in my place of work,) environmental assessment, planning, control and investigation are all part of the role (small part along with all sorts of other interesting stuff, guess who got the limited amounts of small pox vaccine after 9/11? in the US and UK!)
Sorry Professional jealousy! just want people to understand our role, as I understand FEMA, you guys do a good job and hard, hard job.

Here is a link that might be useful: Phillips disaster