FLOATING ISLANDS TO CLEAN POLLUTION

Farmers Turn to Floating Islands to Cut Pollution (from an article in SustainableBusiness.com News [info@sustainablebusiness.com]; Feb.25, 2012; Publ.date: Feb 20, 2013)

Image: BioHaven Island

A report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) zeroes in on the disastrous impacts industrial farming is having - destroying the web of life - and there's a move by US farmers to address that. 

"Our Nutrient World" details how industrial farming saturates ecosystems with nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients,  massively altering the natural balance and causing a "web of water and air pollution." Excess nutrients create dead zones in rivers, lakes and oceans, because they encouage toxic algae blooms that choke off oxygen from marine life.

UNEP says these nutrients can be cut by 20 million metric tons by 2020 by going back to original methods of fertilization - using animal waste to fertilize crops and planting cover crops that naturally fix nitrogen in the soil, as in organic agriculture.

Massive flood plains that once existed in the region used to naturally filter the Mississippi River, but they've been replaced by two million acres of corn, which adds to the problem because it requires high nitrogen inputs. In addition, wetlands have been drained and trees cut, and 110 levees prevent the land from flooding. 

One solution is to restore wetlands that naturally filter out excess nutrients. Farm groups are also experimenting with man-made floating islands made from recycled bottles and seeded with native plants –

Based in Montana, its BioHaven island creates a "concentrated wetland effect."  Inspired by natural floating peat bogs in northern Minnesota, native plants support biological processes that consume the fertilizer and thus clean the water. 

A BioHaven island starts with a mat of material made from recycled plastic bottles. Native seeds are added and the plants send roots through the bottom of the mat. That creates  microbes that consume the fertilizer, which cleans the water and provides food for fish. 

Floating Islands International has installed almost 5000 BioHavens around the world.. (Website: www.floatingislandinternational.com)

Full article: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/24587?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Enewsletter&utm_campaign=E-Newsletter%202012