Water, Water, Everywhere...

When Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," he probably didn't do it thinking about agriculture in the 21st century, but I will.

He wrote:  
"Water, water, everywhere,
     And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
     Nor any drop to drink."

While Coleridge may have been referring to the un-drinkability of seawater from the eyes of a sailor, I will focus on the un-drinkable water we create everyday through bad agricultural practices. Today, in honor of Blog Action Day, I'll be focusing on water. Since my focus is on sustainable agriculture, I'll take a moment to highlight some of the relevant posts I've made about water, and share some new information. 

First, allow me to point out a post I made back in August after reading an NPR release about the severe drought in West Africa. I brought to light, in comparison with the situation in Africa, which the UN was under stress about because they didn't have enough food to send to feed those who were suffering from the consequences of the drought, a positive example from Mexico. Doug Weatherbee conducted an experiment in rural Mexico growing corn during a severe drought season. He treated his land with biological inoculants (good compost and compost tea) and had some amazing results. Go to my post to see the pictures. 

One point I'll introduce, also related to water and specific to Africa, is that Ethiopia, for example, puts 96% of the water collected from above and below, into their agricultural system. The remaining 4%, a mere sip in comparison, pretty much entirely flows to the capital Addis Ababa, where it is drunk, used for watering lawns, and pooped in. The people who live outside the city rely on murky puddles of water which they share with livestock (who don't necessarily refrain from using those puddles as toilets). They come to the water with a bucket, push the cow out of the way, and fill up on their daily dose of drinking/washing/cooking water. All the while in the background, huge sprinklers are spraying thousands of gallons of water into the air, where most of it (on a hot day, as much as 85%) evaporates before it ever makes contact with the ground. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner certainly has some close relevance for these people. 

Another water-topic I want to mention is something I just recently discovered. Turns out, a team at the University of Minnesota produced a movie call "Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story." The film documents the ways in which bad agricultural choices are leading to major problems down the line. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it. U of M decided to postpone their release of the movie after some criticism was brought up by some interested parties *cough* LOBBYISTS! *cough*. Apparently the issue has turned into quite a debaucle over academic freedom, and the control that financial contributors to an educational institution ought to have over the material produced therein. 

Dixon, CA

One piece of info I am privy to related to this movie is that in Dixon, CA, home of almond, walnut, and other agricultural products, there are some concerns from farmers about their drinking water. The EPA has set the limit of nitrite (a soluble form of Nitrogen, and a popular fertilizer) to 1 ppm. On a small walnut farm in Dixon, the nitrite concentration in the water coming out of the faucet measured in at an astounding 75ppm! All that extra nitrogen comes from the excessive use of this synthetic fertilizer on Dixon's orchards. What a waste! Producing that fertilizer consumes 3-5% of our global natural gas production every year, only for it to become a health risk and pollution problem! Where's the logic there?! 

Okay, so I may be rambling a little, and I'll curtail my rant. Before I do, I just want to ask the question of whether it is really worthwhile for our food system to rely on an energy-intensive process that leads to water contamination, and actually decreases the soil's ability to hold on to that precious water. Is it really worth a 'dead-zone' the size of Rhode Island in the Gulf of Mexico? Is chemical-based agriculture really providing enough benefit to outweigh the cost to lives of people who are effected by contaminated drinking water, a system that doesn't allow drinking water for people outside the city, and a system that is devastated when excessive amounts of water aren't available?


Water, water, everywhere...