.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Talk about good timing. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey is taking a delegation to Mississippi to talk about the effect of Midwestern nitrates in the Gulf of Mexico. The best way to make the “dead zone” at the mouth of the Mississippi River look less consequential is to compare it with the massive oil spill now fouling the Louisiana coastline.

But it’s still a problem. Nitrogen and phosphorous wash off Midwestern farmland and into the Mississippi, collecting in the gulf and causing hypoxia – a decrease in oxygen levels that seriously disrupts marine life.

Northey was quoted as saying: “This exchange is designed to help farmers learn from their counterparts in another state and highlight practices they are using that have been shown to be effective in preventing pollution or improving water quality.”

Agriculture will always have its environmental costs, but they’re slow-motion costs for the most part. Oil production results in sudden disasters, such as tankers hitting reefs and wells blowing out. Farming brings long-term soil erosion and annual chemical runoff.

Slow-motion damage is easier to control than sudden catastrophes, but also easier to let slide. We know Iowa farmers have made great strides in the precision placement of chemicals, allowing them to cut per-acre application rates. The Conservation Reserve Program has taken many hillsides out of production and covered them with grass. But we still have fields that have been planted to the very edges of streams, which means there’s no barrier when heavy rains wash chemicals away, and farmers will always do whatever they can to maximize yields.

So we know there’s more basic progress to be made. And we assume there’s also a lot more high-level scientific research to be done.

In the best-case scenario, hypoxia decreases and Iowa farmers also wind up with better, safer chemicals and money-saving ways to apply them.