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Nitrogen washing off midwest farms cause billions in annual damage to Gulf of Mexico fisheries and marine habitat, new study finds

from Union of Concerned Scientists

Nitrogen washing off midwest farms cause billions in annual damage to Gulf of Mexico fisheries and marine habitat, new study finds Union of Concerned Scientists With federal scientists expected to forecast, within days, the size of this year's "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study shows that one of the dead zone's biggest causes — nitrogen that flows downriver from Midwest farms — has been responsible for up to $2.4 billion in damages to Gulf fish stocks and their habitat every year for more than 30 years. The amount of nitrogen coming off Midwest corn and soybean farms, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) study, equates to enough fertilizer to fill 3,000 standard size shipping containers every year since 1980 on average. READ MORE

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