The Dead Zone Diet

Steak or salmon? Millions of menu-mulling diners ask themselves this question every day. Enjoy your dithering while you can, folks, because the day is coming when you may not have the luxury of choosing the lobster over the London broil. For those with a more populist palate, I've got some bad news, too; a future with no more fried clam strips or canned tuna, for you.

Why? Because fertilizer runoff from industrial agriculture and fossil-fuel use are causing catastrophic "dead zones" in our oceans, "killing large swaths of sea life and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage," according to Scientific American.

It's Agribiz vs. Aquabiz, and at the moment, the farmers are beating the waders off of the fishermen. Scientific American notes that "there are now 405 identified dead zones worldwide, up from 49 in the 1960s." And once a marine habitat falls victim to hypoxia, i.e. oxygen deficiency, the outlook is grim:

Only a few dead zones have ever recovered, such as the Black Sea, which rebounded quickly in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union and a massive reduction in fertilizer runoff from fields in Russia and Ukraine. Fertilizer contains large amounts of nitrogen, and it runs off of agricultural fields in water and into rivers, and eventually into oceans.

This fertilizer runoff, instead of contributing to more corn or wheat, feeds massive algae blooms in the coastal oceans. This algae, in turn, dies and sinks to the bottom where it is consumed by microbes, which consume oxygen in the process. More algae means more oxygen-burning, and thereby less oxygen in the water, resulting in a massive flight by those fish, crustaceans and other ocean-dwellers able to relocate as well as the mass death of immobile creatures, such as clams or other bottom-dwellers. And that's when the microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments take over, forming vast bacterial mats that produce hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas.

How fitting! More toxic gas from the same chemical companies who gave the world Agent Orange. Except that in this case, it's an unwelcome by-product. Oops! Sorry 'bout that!

But don't worry, Monsanto and DuPont are on the job. They've come up with a great new biotech solution to the mess they've made of our oceans; "NUE" crops, as in "nitrogen use efficiency." These NUE crops are engineered to have roots that absorb more nitrogen, reportedly allowing farmers to "produce the same yield with half as much fertilizer."

I've got a better idea. Why don't we stop looking to the same corporations who have screwed up our environment to fix things? As Prince Charles told the Telegraph the other day, the multinational companies promoting the use of GM crops are conducting a "gigantic experiment I think with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong." Charles has predictably been labeled a luddite for daring to challenge "a system that is fundamentally flawed," as Grist puts it. But it's the Better-Living-Through-Biotech crowd who's just too blinkered to see the Big Picture -- you know, the one where all their brilliant breakthroughs come back to bite us on the ass.

There's the Roundup-resistant strain of super weeds Monsanto's helped create, for example, and let's not forget another great Monsanto innovation, Posilac, aka rBST, the bovine growth hormone designed to wring more milk out of our dairy cows. Unfortunately for Monsanto, cows are not sponges but, in fact, living, breathing creatures whose bodies aren't equipped to cope with the stepped-up production induced by artificial hormones.

Consumer rejection of rBST-tainted dairy products finally forced Monsanto to admit that it's looking to dump Posilac, but you can bet they've got any number of equally ill-conceived "breakthroughs" in the pipeline that promise to solve all the world's food crises. In fact, the Agribiz apologists will tell you that industrial agriculture is our only hope.

But as Frances Moore Lappé wrote on Huffington Post last week, the notion that we should be looking to Agribiz to feed the world is pernicious propaganda spread with the aid -- sometimes unwitting -- of a lazy and uninformed media. The story that's not getting out is the fact that farmers all over the world are finding new ways -- and reviving old ones -- to produce food without destroying our soil and water. As Lappé notes:

On every continent one can find empowered rural communities developing GM-free, agro-ecological farming systems. They're succeeding: The largest overview study, looking at farmers transitioning to sustainable practices in 57 countries, involving almost 13 million small farmers on almost 100 million acres, found after four years that average yields were up 79 percent.

We managed to feed ourselves for centuries without relying on chemicals and we can do it again. As environmental journalist Claire Cummings writes in Uncertain Peril:

Our success as a species did not come about because we imposed our values on nature. As a survival strategy, domination is doomed...Our outmoded engineering technologies require us to exert too much command and control over nature in an endless cycle of tyranny...

...Genetic engineering has misled us into believing that we have to reformulate nature according to our own designs. Even if it works, it's a dead-end strategy, because it forces us to live within the extremely limited confines of the human imagination.

Limited, indeed. Who could have predicted that those amber waves of grain we grow from sea to shining sea would wind up destroying those seas -- aside, of course, from the marine biologists who've been "sounding the alarm on hypoxic zones for decades"? Imagine this; if we don't take drastic steps to halt the growth of these dead zones, the question of whether to order the meat or the fish could become as obsolete as VHS vs. Beta. Better learn to love your veggies.

Comments

[isis]

The Sierra Club has many good suggestions including growing fertilizer loving grasses for biofuels instead of corn along the waters' edge. But logic is no match for the Monsanto and Corn growers PACs. People in the US can eat less beef and pork but then it just gets shipped to China.

[elan4444]

I was raised on a farm, so am in total agreement. Weren't those videos of the catle being hoist-lifted to slaughter when they couldn't walk enough? And the way halal meat is processed? I can't believe a religion in the year 2008 saying bleeding something to death is a good idea. Talk about uncivilized. The more we discover about animal intelligence, the more difficult it is to justify our consumption of them. There's nothing like watching your cucumbers proceed from seeds in the ground to pickle-ready produce, it's a great feeling, plus you get fresh air checking on them. More children need to be involved in gardening in order to renew their connection to the earth. Last year I raised a dozen pumpkins in my smallish garden space, the kids in the neighborhood thought it was very special to be able to choose one for their own.

[BRlongview]

I've read The Omnivore's Dilemma and Ishmael and The Vegan Sourcebook and all that. I get it. And sure i can make a difference, but not a big enough one. Not fast enough. There has to be an overwhelming response from a critical mass. Now.

It's true that the system is "fundamentally flawed". And like Daniel Quinn said, we keep trying to fix it with new "programs". "Eat Local!", "Go Vegan!", "Buy Hybrid!" But as he said, using a "program" to change a system is like jamming a stick in the mud to stop a river. It ain't gonna happen unless the most BASIC and FUNDAMENTAL aspects of that system are rejected or destroyed. What is necessary to save the world is indeed the unmaking of civilization itself.

No one but "crazy radicals" and stoner hippies are willing to even think about that, much less put it into action.

And masses of people aren't willing to change unless the price is right. Look how high gas prices had to go before a significant number of americans finally decided "hey... maybe i don't want this SUV after all." Out of sight, out of mind! If it's not right their faces or burning holes in their paychecks, most people will never change. "Going green" is trendy to talk about, but as long as the core assumptions of the Old Way are intact, the efforts of a well-intending minority amount to little more than a hazy daydream.

Now Prove Me Wrong.

[consciousmom]

This is so disheartening. As mlaiuppa states, by returning to small farms and eating locally raised food, organic becomes easier to come by, and we take up less resources to produce food.

It's crucial for the health of ourselves and the planet (since we are connected, after all!) to return to a more simplified way of eating.

Lisa
http://www.Holistic-Treatment-for-Depression.com
Your Daily Foothold to Happiness

[Sciguy]

I agree with most of this post. I only want to point out one thing: yes, we managed to feed ourselves for centuries without using fertilizer. However, there are now a lot more of us to feed. Using gardens with compost is a solution, but the part of chicken poop, horse poop, or even humanure that makes veggies happy is the same nitrogen that one finds in chemical fertilizers. It's still nitrogen, and I'd bet that if we used enough of it, some of it would also end up as runoff. (Of course, it would also get rid of manure, which would be a good thing in itself.)

[SweetJudith]

I gave up meat and fish years ago.
It simply is, the ethical and healthy thing to do.
I shall never allow my body to be used as a graveyard for dead animals!
Peace!
Judith

[dapperd72]

More power to you, Judith, for making the ethical decision. I hope if you're not already, you'll go vegan , as we all must to save ourselves & the planet we call home, not to mention the billions of nonhuman animals systematically massacred to feed the modern bloodthirsty human appetite. There's nothing eco-friendly about eating fish or other marine life any more than terrestrial or winged animals. The oceans, rivers, streams and bays must be preserved for the flora & fauna who call them home, not for human exploitation of these sacred habitats. They exist for their own reasons, regardless of how any human might want to enslave them, engendering instant karma against human health.

[SweetJudith]

Hi, I so enjoyed reading your post.
Yes, I went Vegan about 5 years ago after finally giving up cheesecake. LOL
For many years I would tell people that asked about how I felt about going Vegan,
that I was a vegetarian and aspiring vegan! I finally made it! Cows, Pigs, chickens
and all other animals exploited by the agribusiness are sentient beings and people must start to respect these innocent, precious beings. Slaughter is as horrific as anything I have ever viewed in my lifetime. Have you ever watched the amazing, Earthlings, narrated by
Joaquin Phoenix? And or, Meet you Meat, narrated by Alec Baldwin? I am pretty sure you
have. If not, please do. But of course, you are already there. I feel the only way there would be any peace for these glorious beings would be extinction. This is a hard thing for most people to agree with me about. But for these poor abused animals, extinct means safe forever.
Peace for all animals!

[mlaiuppa]

The lawn is gone, replaced with a vegetable garden. I compost in my wormtopia and use it for the garden. I can get free compost from the city by bringing them bags of my lawn clippings. I use no fertilizer or pesticides. I eat what I grow. I can't provide all of my needs, but any bit I can is less I buy from the store. I trade produce with my parents, who grow different crops.

If you eat, grow and buy local you reduce quite a bit. It's easier to get organic (I.E. no pesticides or fertilizers) when you buy local.

I'll have to eat seasonally and some things I may not be able to get. Too bad. I can adjust.

[joanndarc]

You are correct.
Industrial agriculture (industrial corn in particular) is the reason why Americans inclubing Mexicans are getting mor fat every year.
Corn does not grow as well in Europe as it does in USA, and thus is a very minor crop, so cattle is fed with grass b/c it grows better the corn.
How many fat French do you know? The life span there and in poor Greece is longer then in USA.