“Scientists in the Chesapeake Bay have been looking at nutrient budgets for close to three decades. But to date, no state has implemented one …. Nevertheless, the idea continues to percolate,” reports the Bay Journal, ahead of a Chesapeake Bay Summit to be broadcast on Maryland Public Television on Wednesday. With a nutrient budget, farmers would agree to strict limits on fertilizer use to qualify for farm subsidies. Proponents say the concept is similar to the requirement, dating from 1985, for farmers to limit soil erosion as part of the farm program.
Denmark adopted nutrient budgets in the 1990s as part of general cleanup of excessive nutrient runoff in cities and farms, limiting growers to 90 percent of the fertilizer they had been using. The budgets greatly reduced nitrogen and phosphorous levels in Danish waterways. At the same time, the government invested in research to optimize yields at lower fertilizer rates, says Bay Journal. “Hard economic times in Denmark have brought retrenchment.” The new, right-leaning government “has rolled back the nutrient management regulations” at the request of farmers.
Marine scientist Jacob Carstensen, of Aarhus University, said a key to success with nutrient budgets is to persuade farmers that they will benefit in the end. “Overall, I think culturally, I think Americans are much different from Europeans. I think it’s much more difficult to regulate Americans,” he told Bay Journal.