nitrogen fertilizer

photo of President Trump and members of his cabinet listening to a presentation on the war with Iran in a dark room at Mar-a-Lago; Trump wears a hat with "USA" in large letters, and in the background is a US flag and a screen displaying a map of the Middle East

Daniel Torok/White House via Getty Images

March 19, 2026

What Farmers Will Pay for President Trump’s War on Iran

Omanjana Goswami
Interdisciplinary Scientist

map highlighting the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

Anamarija Mrkic/Getty Images

March 17, 2026

Iran War Shows Why Farmers Need an Off-Ramp from Their Fertilizer Dependence

Kathryn Anderson
Program Director, Food & Environment

Image of a stream on farm land in Iowa without conservation riparian buffers

Lynn Betts/USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

November 19, 2025

From Fields to Faucets: Fertilizer Overuse Threatens Drinking Water and Health

Stacy Woods
Research Director

aerial photo of two tractors spraying fertilizer on a large brown field divided into many rows; the spray drifts off to the left from a breeze

Charles O'Rear/Flickr

November 19, 2025

Half Wasted: Fertilizer Overuse, Pollution, and the Global Nitrogen Cycle

Omanjana Goswami
Interdisciplinary Scientist

photo of a cornfield with a row of many tall metal grain silos looming in the background

Preston Keres/USDA

October 7, 2025

Why Planting Too Much Corn Hurts Farmers—and the Environment

Kathryn Anderson
Program Director, Food & Environment

satellite photo of the continental United States with the rivers of the Mississippi and Missouri watershed highlighted; all the rivers eventually drain into the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana

NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

July 31, 2025

What Do Trump’s Attacks on NOAA Have to Do with the Gulf Dead Zone?

Karen Perry Stillerman
Deputy Director

photo of a farm vehicle spraying fertilizer on a field of corn, with a bright, partly cloudy sky in the background

Katie Nichols/ACES

February 11, 2025

Fertilizer Overuse Is Bad Enough. What If You’re Exposed to Multiple Pollutants?

Omanjana Goswami
Interdisciplinary Scientist

A scientist collects samples on board a research vessel as part of a research project to investigate falling oxygen levels in the Baltic Sea.

Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images

July 25, 2024

Scientists Keep Measuring the Dead Zone. Let’s Fix the Fertilizer that Feeds It

Karen Perry Stillerman
Deputy Director

farm runoff

Lynn Betts/USDA NRCS

December 12, 2023

Ask a Scientist: Fighting Big Ag Pollution with Maps and Math

Elliott Negin
Former Contributor

photo of a massive wall of orange dust clouds moving down an empty road lined with tall streetlights, heading straight toward the camera

Caleb Holder/Shutterstock

May 11, 2023

Illinois Dust Storm Disaster Is a Warning for Agriculture

Karen Perry Stillerman
Deputy Director

Southern Foodways Alliance/Flickr

August 4, 2020

Pollution, Hurricanes, and the Pandemic Spell Trouble for Gulf Shrimp and Seafood Industries

Rebecca Boehm
Former Contributor

Billy Metcalf Photography/Flickr

June 29, 2020

Reviving the Gulf Dead Zone Is Worth it: Our New Report Shows the Benefits of Action

Rebecca Boehm
Former Contributor

Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

August 3, 2017

Dead Zone 2017: Even Worse than Predicted (and That's an Understatement)

Karen Perry Stillerman
Deputy Director

Photo courtesy National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

June 14, 2017

This Summer’s Gulf “Dead Zone” Could Be Bigger Than Connecticut—and Trump’s Budget Cuts Would Make It Worse

Karen Perry Stillerman
Deputy Director

October 24, 2013

A Food Day Wish List: More Veggies, Less Corn

Karen Perry Stillerman
Deputy Director