Advocates defend farm practices

Washington–Time magazine’s Aug. 31 cover story, “The Real Cost of Cheap Food,” has produced an outcry from agriculture advocates and at least one legislator. The article, written by Bryan Walsh, focuses on aspects of “industrialized agriculture” such as factory farms, feedlots, and fertilizer use, claiming the U.S. agricultural industry “can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices,” but does so at “a high cost to the environment, animals and humans.” In a section on fertilizer use, the Time article said the quantity of fertilizer used annually in American agriculture is “flat-out scary,” and contributes to the hypoxic “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico and the destruction of the Gulf’s fishing industry. In a Sept. 29 statement on the Senate Floor, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) took issue with the piece, referring to it as “one of the most skewed and one sided articles I’ve ever had the opportunity to read,” as well as “an inaccurate, incomplete and unfair reflection of family farmers across the country.” Grassley cited data from The Fertilizer Institute and USDA showing greater nutrient efficiency, which he said was “in direct contradiction to the author’s statements.” Grassley also said “technology has allowed farmers to apply the exact amount of fertilizer in the right way so there isn’t excess,” and he came to fertilizer’s defense on the Gulf hypoxia charge as well. “There is increasing recognition that causes of hypoxia relate strongly to man-made alterations of the entire system, including channelization of the Mississippi, reversal of the Atchafalaya River, and extreme loss of wetlands and barrier islands that filter nutrients and protect against storm surges ?Çô not solely nutrient issues,” he said, referring to an EPA Science Advisory Board report that said 22 percent of nitrogen and 34 percent of phosphorus loads can be attributed to point sources rather than agriculture. Grassley was not the only one critical of the Time article. According to the Peoria Journal Star, Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson called the piece “an inaccurate and misleading representation of U.S. food production,” and Rodney Weinzierl, executive director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, was quoted as saying the article was further evidence that “so many people don’t have a clue about farming.”