On average, farmers spread 150 to 200 pounds of nitrogen on each acre of their corn fields to boost yields, more than almost any other crop by far. Most of it runs off into the Gulf of Mexico. Plankton gobble up the sudden glut in nutrients and excrete organic matter into the water and sediment. As the matter decays, it sucks oxygen out of the water en masse, suffocating any animals that stick around. If the country switched to a vegan diet, it would drastically reduce the gulf's building dead zone, Eshel said. But he recognizes that's not going to happen anytime soon. "What we need is to treat cheese, dairy, and meat as condiments, to be used rarely instead of at every meal." He said. "And we need policies in place that require spatially distributed farms, instead of ultra-efficient, huge farms that encourage the use of so much nitrogen." However, Battaglin says, America appears just as addicted to its massive farms as it is to meat. "Honestly, even if a large portion of food grown for livestock were not grown for livestock, I think it'd still be grown. Farmers would find a different market for their product," he said. "I don't see farmers saying 'oh well, I'm not going to grow corn anymore; I'll grow oak trees or apples instead'." Related Links: |
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