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kikipeepers asked

Which is more important: the high demand for corn to help reduce fuel emissions, or the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico?

Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since World War II. And sea life in the Gulf of Mexico is paying the price. The nation's corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to a growing 'dead zone' — a 7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that fish, crabs and shrimp suffocate.

EthanolEcosystem
53%
47%

#News#Science

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