Research Prospectus and Bibliography

For my research topic I am going to focus on and research farming techniques and the major affect it has on the environment and especially our water supply. Since the founding of our nation, there has been a major change in the way we farm our agricultural goods. Farming as a whole is completely different from the way it was done 250 years ago. Thanks to advances in technology, we can produce more goods, at a more efficient rate, for less money. The question I propose in the paper, is at what cost? What are the techniques used for which we have had these great advances in the production methods of our agricultural goods? What damages have the farming practices of today had our landscapes, rivers, and streams? When one thinks about how farming has changed in America over the past 250 years one can gather the arguments of my paper before I even begin. 250 years ago one would picture a single man plowing a field with a single-lane plow pulled by an ox. How much negative effect can such practices have on an ecosystem? Then today, one would picture the modern agricultural techniques practiced on farms all across America. They picture fleets of 50 foot wide combines tilling, planting, and fertilizing in one smooth sweep on a never ending corn field. It doesn’t make much effort or thought to realize that the modern day farming practices have a much more adverse effect on the surrounding ecosystem.

One main area of focus and concern with this issue is the use of pesticides within these modern practices. One of the things that made farming so difficult before modern fertilizers is the loss of crops due to poor soil and falling victims to insects and animals that would feast on the crops. However today, with modern fertilizers, and soil enrichment chemicals, the yield produced by crops is astronomical compared to pre-modern practices.

The problem ensues when these chemicals are washed away by rainwater and make their way into rivers and streams which then make their way into watersheds and our water supply. It is this same water from our rivers and streams in which we use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. The United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 5 million people die each year from water-borne illnesses. 4 million of these being children die of diarrhea because their digestive systems are not equipped to digest such chemicals. In order to fix this problem, we must determine where these contaminations are coming from. Another problem is that a majority of these contaminations are coming from non-point sources, which are sources from which one particular source cannot be determined, but only narrowed down to a group of possible locations where these contaminates entered our water supply. Point sources, on the other hand, are sources that can be narrowed down and therefore corrected.

Because of their high yields and enormous profit margins, farmers are set on farming practices that continue to poison our water supply and deteriorate our ecosystems. At the same time, the negative effects these farming practices have on our environment are too severe and apparent to ignore. So what do we do? This paper will look at the causes and effects on modern farming practices and what is being done to limit and correct such effects.

Bibliography

Baker, Andy. "Fluorescence properties of some farm wastes: implications for water quality monitoring." Elsevier Science 36.1 (2002): 189-95. Web. 31 Jan 2010.

Feather, Peter. "Voluntary Incentives for Reducing Agricultural Nonpoint Source Water Pollution." Economic Research Service (1995): n. pag. Web. 31 Jan 2010.

Geldreich, Edwin. "Concepts of Fecal Streptococci in Stream Pollution." Water Envirnomental Federation 41.8 (1969): 336-52. Web. 31 Jan 2010.

Johnson, Scott. "The On-Farm Costs of Reducing Groundwater Pollution." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 73.4 (1991): 1063-73. Web. 31 Jan 2010.

Shortle, James. "The Realitive Efficiency of Agricultural Source Water Pollution Control Policies." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 68.3 (1986): 668-78. Web. 31 Jan 2010.