Farmers' Perspective

The most notable contribution to dead zones across the world is agricultural run off.  In almost every article concerning dead zones the perpetrators of this problem are farmers, but is it truly fair to demonize the hard working farmers of the world for a system out of their control? In the most developed countries it is cheaper and more reliable to integrate pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides into one’s farming practices. This is due to years of government subsidies that encourage farmers to successfully produce large crops via chemical aids. An exemplary country of this inorganic farming culture is the United States.  In reaction to the food shortage of WWII, the U.S subsidized agrochemical agriculture. Ysanne Spevack (2012), an author of an Organic Food Magazine, elucidates on the United State's motives: “The governments of the day needed to ensure that the severe food shortages of the war never happened again. Starvation and famine in Europe urgently needed to be protected against, and the new chemical technologies of the 1950′s seemed like a gift.”  The aftermath of this fight against starvation is government subsidies for agrochemical agriculture and zero subsidies for organic farming; making agrochemical farming more profitable and more abundant. With this agricultural system so ingrained in our farming practices it is in the farmer’s best interest to purchase chemical aids and gain government subsidies in order to facilitate his prosperity. Fortunately though the spread of dead zone awareness throughout the farming realm has encouraged some farmers to change their farming practices so that they conserve or even abolish their use of chemical aids. However, this is hard for many low-income farmers to do because economically they are unable to take the risk of growing organically. In essence farmers are not directly to blame for this problem, but rather they are simply the victims of an outdated government system of farming subsidies.  

      (Farm School, 2013) 

                                               (Natural Turf, 2012) 

The chart on the left illustrates the tons of various chemical aids used by farmers in 1994. While the picture on right demonstrates farm workers use of toxic pesticides.

Work Cited

Farm School. (2013) Chemicals in Farm Ecosystem. Farm School. (Date Accessed: February 13, 2013). <http://www2.kenyon.edu/projects/farmschool/nature/chem.htm>.

Natural Turf. (2012) An eye opener-Suburban vs. Agricultural Pesticide Use. Natural Turf. (Date Accessed: February 11, 2013) <http://naturalturf.blogspot.com/2012/03/eye-opener-suburban-vs- agricultural.html>.

 Schleifstein, M. (1996) Are the World's Fisheries Doomed? The Times-Picayune. (Date Accessed: February 12, 2013). <http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6010>.

Ysanne, S. (2012) Why is organic food more expensive and when will it change? OrganicFoodee. (Date Accessed: February 21, 2013). <http://www.organicfoodee.com/sense/tooexpensive/>.