And forget about the corn-ethanol scam too. Every year the media largely ignores the environmental and economic calamity in the Gulf Coast caused by agricultural runoff from Midwestern factory farms. Most of the pesticides that cause the annual Gulf Dead Zone are used to grow soy and the High Fructose Corn Syrup that's in nearly all processed food.
The oil leak is a horrible, growing disaster. But let's remember that the media chooses to ignore some horrific environmental disasters that are tolerated as the cost of doing business. Big agribusiness has been destroying the Gulf Coast for a long time and no one is being held accountable.
We need to ban the worst sources of pollution and promote sustainable agriculture policies. It would be a hypocritical failure to fix the oil leak without also changing our agriculture policy.
http://prairierivers.org/rivers/preventing-water-pollution/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone/Pollution from Illinois and other states in the Mississippi River Basin has been linked with an area within the Gulf of Mexico known as the Dead Zone. The Dead Zone forms every summer off the coast of Louisiana, and averages 5,000 square miles. This area is aptly named because oxygen gets so low (<2 mg/L) that ocean life cannot breathe. Species capable of moving large distances can escape the stressful conditions, but less mobile species such as shrimp and crab will perish when dissolved oxygen becomes limiting. Such loss of life is detrimental to the fishing industry and the ocean environment.
Scientists have determined that nitrogen and phosphorus pollution are the leading causes of the Dead Zone. When there are too many nutrients in the ocean, aquatic plants become excessively abundant and deplete the water of oxygen as they decompose. Recent studies by the U.S. Geological Survey have concluded that of all states draining into the Gulf of Mexico, Illinois contributes the most nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. Some of this pollution comes from municipal water treatment plants, but most of it comes from crop and livestock production. Therefore, in order to reduce the size of the Dead Zone, Illinois needs to become a national leader in tackling the amount of polluted runoff reaching the Gulf.