After meeting with representatives of the Iowa environmental council (an NGO uniting multiple groups towards major environmental goals in the political atmosphere) today I saw a second point of view compared with the one I was given in the Paarlberg’s food politics book. The book explained that the runoff of agricultural lands was decreasing and that nitrogen is the main runoff issue. Policy analysts at the council, however, told us that phosphorus and soil runoff are still significant issues, and that nitrogen runoff is a serious and complex issue. Iowa is one of many states feeding into the Gulf of Mexico and has little to no significant regulation on fertilizer inputs for crop land. The only regulation that seemed to be definitive was that water bodies used for drinking water must be below a certain level for nitrates. I knew that agriculture runoff was a complicated issue, but I never realized just how complicated. The biggest initial issue is that its source is nearly untraceable–it’s non-point water pollution  If rain carries excess nitrogen from a farm to a river, how could tell the origin of the nitrogen? It’s incredibly difficult and expensive to do so. Not only that, but nobody likes regulations dictating what they are able to do especially people like farmers in many areas who have lived doing things their preferred ways for some time. Then there’s the fact that if you invest in a method that costs some amount (which some conservation efforts would) and others don’t, you put yourself at a financial disadvantage. Since all efforts are currently voluntary most people are left with this scenario. What people forget to factor in is how many others are affected by their decisions on their property in this issue, some of the benefits of improved methods (e.g.,. runoff of nutrients is not absorbed into the land). If there is runoff, you are pouring your money into a lake and washing it away. Using the proper fertilizer amounts will save the farmer money, and it will protect both local and downstream downstream environments.