Thread by @SarasotaMermaid

John Moran: It’s time to unfriend fertilizer

The pollution that is sickening Florida waters and threatening human health is caused by agricultural and lawn fertilizer, and human and animal waste. gainesville.com/opinion/201904…

Florida County governments are legally obligated to reduce this nutrient loading.

Fertilizer application by farmers, in one county, adds an estimated 460,433 pounds of nitrogen to the aquifer

"Nutrients" may sound nutritious, but they fuel the growth of slime in many of our favorite springs.

* Because Florida is a right-to-farm state, county government is preempted from regulating farmers.

Lawn fertilizer is the target, and passage of the new code would usher in a countywide nine-month blackout period. The revised code — Florida's strictest — would limit application of lawn fertilizers containing nitrogen and/or phosphorus to April through June.

The push-back from fertilizer and turf industry reps insist that summertime fertilizer blackouts don't work and science doesn't support attempts to regulate them. They say septic tanks are the real culprit here, never mind that flushing is essential while fertilizer is not.

Florida waters are a mess and we know how we got here. From the slime-encrusted rivers flowing from Lake Okeechobee, to the beleaguered springs of North Florida.

Fertilizer is a scourge that is destroying our waters.

The fertilizer and turn industries that profit from using this stuff are quick to say "don't blame us" or "we're doing our best."

At the nexus of many threads connecting state waters you'll find IFAS, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

IFAS' distinguished record of service to Florida is not without contradiction. IFAS effectively functions as the central nervous system of the lawn-industrial complex, a cozy relationship well-entrenched as a model of institutional inertia.

In the wake of Florida's devastating 2018 Summer of Slime, in which fertilizer has clearly been implicated, the IFAS prescription continues to read, "More, please."

Online and at public events, you needn't look hard to find IFAS-branded "Florida-Friendly Fertilizing Tips."

The messaging explicitly states that you just might need to fertilize even "if your landscape is healthy and its appearance is pleasing."

It's no accident the words "friendly" and "fertilizing" rub shoulders here. Under the banner of "Trust us, we're experts,"

A purposeful effort by IFAS to normalize the abuse of our surface waters, and the Floridan Aquifer — the source of our drinking water

Riddled with more holes than the aquifer, IFAS' brand of Swiss-cheese science demonstrably fails to account for what happens to all that nitrogen

Our ground water pollution wrought by lawn fertilizer. IFAS knows the numbers don't add up, even as they give cover to an industry whose view of the matter is seen through the lens of their wallets.

And then there's water quantity, hit hard by all that aquifer-sucking turf grass

Florida is a state where half of household water is still being poured on the ground. By 2030, we'll need another 1.3 billion gallons of fresh water each day over 2010 water use.

The message from IFAS to industry is, "We're here for you." As for our public waters, "Not so much.”

Slime loves fertilizer. They're happy together. If more fertilizer is the answer, we need better questions.

If the UF mission is to shape a better future, then UF President Kent Fuchs would do well to disband and defund the IFAS turf/fertilizer research and advocacy program.

Tax dollars would be better spent developing science-driven strategic communications to advance positive social change. We don't need to build a better fertilizer addiction. We need to help Floridians wean themselves from this harmful habit altogether.

If your chemically dependent, irrigation-intensive turf grass lawn can't survive without life support, that's nature's way of saying let it go.

If you love our springs then let's be wise. Resist the urge to fertilize.

It takes strength to let go. Be strong, Florida.

Here’s the link to the entire story

John Moran: It’s time to unfriend fertilizer gainesville.com/opinion/201904…

@threadreaderapp please unroll