nitrogen runoff
Wetlands benefits vary for greenhouse gases, nitrate runoff
Wetlands in the upper Mississippi and Ohio River watersheds can remove up to 1,800 pounds of nitrogen per acre from field runoff, says a USDA study of the economic benefits of wetland conservation.
Buffer strips would help Iowa curb nutrient runoff – EWG
If Iowa farmers plant buffer strips alongside waterways, they "could get two-thirds of the way to the state’s goal for reducing phosphorus pollution and one-fifth of the way to the nitrogen pollution target," says a report by the Environmental Working Group.
Fertilizer management, filtering can cut runoff by 45%
Nitrogen runoff could be reduced by 45 percent in the Mississippi River basin - the heart of U.S. grain farming - with adoption of practices that reduce fertilizer waste and conversion of as little as 3.1 million acres of farmland to filter and hold nutrients that now flow downstream, says a research paper. Nitrogen runoff from farms and other sources is blamed for the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.
Des Moines water board plans to sue over nitrate runoff
The Des Moines Water Works trustees are expected to vote today to sue three farming counties in northwestern Iowa for high nitrate levels in the Raccoon River, one of two watersheds tapped for drinking water in Iowa's capital city.
Harnessing Big Data to stop green slime in Lake Erie
During the summer, green slime, also known as blue-green algae, disrupted the water supply for Toledo. Nutrient runoff from farms, especially phosphorus fertilizer, gets part of the blame for feeding the algae blooms.
Three Iowa farm groups form water-quality alliance
Groups representing soybean, corn and hog farmers in Iowa formed an alliance to encourage farmers in the Hawkeye state to voluntarily reduce nutrient runoff, said DTN.
Beef has 10 times environmental impact as pork or poultry
Research into the grain, water and other material needed to produce food says that eating beef is 10 times more costly to the environment as other food derived from animals, such as pork or poultry, says the Weizmann Institute of Science, based in Israel. "Cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water, are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases, and consume 6 times as much nitrogen, as eggs or poultry," says the Institute in a statement.
Everyone wants to give EQIP a haircut
Congress is on track to trim the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a cost-share program to reduce runoff from fields and feedlots, by as much as 16 percent from its authorized level of $1.6 billion. The FY15 USDA spending bills pending in the House and Senate each would cut the program; the House by $209 million and the Senate by $250 million.
Eat less meat, reduce climate change gases
The executive summary of a European study, "Nitrogen on the Table," says if Europe reduced its meat consumption, it "would reduce nitrogen air and water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, while freeing up large areas of farmland for other purposes such as food export or bioenergy."