8/5/21

Socialized agriculture driving larger-than-average dead zone

Following the release of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest measurements Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman said that state's Nutrient Reduction Management Strategy is proving to be ineffective in controlling the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. But, Lehman is concerned that without further financial incentives from the Biden administration Republican welfare farmers will simply continue polluting waterways.
Conserving 30% of our nation’s landscape would equate to 729 million acres or another 437 million acres that isn’t already protected. It’s an area a little less than nine times the size of South Dakota. [Tri-State Neighbor]
The number of acres in agroecosystems has tripled since the 1940s but ag practices like tiling have made soils unable to absorb rainfall creating elevated levels of salinity and concentrated animal feeding operations contribute to nutrient runoff. 

President Joe Biden has established a task force to determine the social costs of carbon and has required federal agencies to immediately begin applying their findings in their regulatory actions and other decision-making.
With multiple carbon credit options and incentives now available, an economist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has compiled a comparison of programs and what is being offered to farmers. While most programs pay per carbon credit, some pay per farming practice, and others, such as the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, pays per acre for selected farms in selected counties, that are making improvements related to carbon, water quality, etc. [Farm Forum]
Ethanol being grown for motor fuel is produced by burning diesel fuel. How is that either conservative or sustainable? 
The average hypoxic zone over the past five years is 5,380 square miles, which is 2.8 times larger than the 2035 target set by the Hypoxia Task Force. Since records began in 1985, the largest hypoxic zone measured was 8,776 square miles in 2017. The Hypoxia Task Force also empowers state programs by sharing successful strategies, as well as providing funding to states to support program development and implementation efforts that are tailored to finding local solutions. “Each of the Hypoxia Task Force states are committed to showing continuous improvement towards the goals outlined in our state-level Nutrient Reduction Strategies. We have technical experts who are working alongside public and private partners, farmers and landowners, and municipalities to implement locally-led water quality projects,” said Mike Naig, Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture and co-chair of the Hypoxia Task Force. [NOAA, Larger-than-average Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ measured]
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