What Can We Do?

What Can You Do?

With many of the problems the world faces most of us don't think we can make a difference, or are unsure as to how we can create change.  Sadly what we don't realize is with small shifts in our living habits some of these problems can be prevented or alleviated.  The biggest thing we must realize is we as individuals can make a difference.  With a major cause of dead zones being fertilizer runoff the obvious solution is to get farmers to stop using such chemical rich foods for their crops.  How can you possibly change that?  Well the biggest and most important thing the everyday consumer can do is really focus on buying organic foods, and on supporting your local farmers markets.  If demand for organic foods rises grocery stores will be forced to stock more earth friendly products, which in turn will cause the farming industry to start supplying crops which have been grown under these improved conditions.  By supporting your local farmers, it keeps even the smaller farms from using these chemicals on their crops and stopping the runoff of chemicals into lakes and the build up of these chemicals in the land.  Because dead zones are not just limited to the oceans this is extremely important because the smaller farms are more likely to use cheaper methods to keep up with the big guys, and right now feeding with chemicals is a whole lot cheaper.  If we increase the demand for organics these methods will become cheaper and with any luck will be able to see cheaper organic foods in our local grocery store.

                                       Image by Getty/The Bergman Group.