lawsuit says, to prevent nitrates from flowing out of farm fields into rivers Iowa

[mick silver]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/us/conflict-over-soil-and-water-quality-puts-iowa-nice-to-a-test.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-1&action=click&contentCollection=Energy%20%26%20Environment%20&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

[palani]

Conflicting policies from government. Prior to 1970 Iowa used to have less row crop and more pasture, hay, oats and certainly less run-off. Then the USDA head Earl Butz came out and said to farmers 'GET BIG OR GET OUT'. The ones who heeded his advice got out and what is left is continuous cropping, heavy chemical and fertilizer usage and lots of NITRATES in the runoff ... not to mention much more erosion than when rotation of crops was used.

I suppose these large farmers could be sued for the quality of their runoff but then they would simply go out of business. The commercial model for farming works when those involved can find a profit. When the profit motive goes away so do the big farmers and most likely the nitrate problem will evaporate the same way.