Subsidizing the Dead Zone

A study by the Environmental Working Group (see "Dead in the Water") shows that 70 percent of the nitrate pollution responsible for the annual dead zone that forms in the Gulf of Mexico comes from farm fertilizer. Furthermore, the study found that 80 percent of that fertilizer pollution comes from a small number of rural counties representing just 15 percent of the Mississippi River Basin. Not coincidentally those counties are some of the biggest corn producers in the nation. Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said the findings make the Gulf dead zone problem "look very much more solvable than it was before." He noted that subsidy payments in the worst polluting counties were 500 times greater than conservation payments.