Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story | movie | 2010 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

Farming practices in America's heartland, including excess fertilizers and poor soil conservation, have wrought unintend | dG1feEFwX1VxeWl3Q3M

Transcript

00:00 The Mississippi River flows through the heart of America...

00:10 a place of rich tradition...

00:15 and stunning landscapes.

00:19 It is also home to some of the most productive farmland in the

00:23 world, but this success comes with a price.

00:29 The very fertilizers that help farmers produce record yields

00:33 are greening America's waters, creating dead zones upriver and

00:37 downriver.

00:39 (Dr. John) We are wasting a lot of fertilizer, a lot of energy,

00:41 a lot of money, at the same time that we're having very

00:44 serious impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

00:48 (Dr. Mary) It's not natural to be swimming in the water and

00:50 not see living organisms.

00:52 Unswimmable, undrinkable water that is inhospitable to life.

00:57 (Dr. John) We've painted the world, all of the agricultural

01:00 lands of the world, in phosphorus and nitrogen.

01:03 (Mary) Why is it becoming unsafe?

01:05 Why are the nitrates going up?

01:07 (Narrator) Meanwhile, on the land, valuable soil is

01:10 washing away.

01:12 Farming practices have created a series of unintended

01:16 consequences.

01:17 (Dr. John) The lake will be filled with sediment in 300

01:19 years, and it will be gone in a little more than a few

01:26 generations.

01:27 (Narrator) Farmers, scientists and citizens are working

01:29 together toward a more sustainable future.

01:33 New ideas are being tested, policies are being challenged.

01:37 (Dr. John) It's change, it's hard to break old habits and

01:41 old traditions.

01:43 (Dr. John) I'm very optimistic.

01:44 We've gone from Axe and Ox to tractors to GPSs to precision

01:48 machines to agriculture.

01:50 We've come a long, long way.

01:51 (Narrator) In a world where the demand for food is expected to

01:54 double by mid-century, the future health of America's

01:57 agricultural lands and waters is at stake.

02:00 Our food supply is on the line and is headed toward a watery

02:06 grave in the Gulf of Mexico.

02:09 ♪♪

02:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]