US farm subsidies of $US6billion each year to farmers on the Mississippi River, contribute directly to the flushing of nitrogen based fertilisers into the Gulf of Mexico, responsible for the infamous Gulf "dead-zone". This is an oxygen starved area of the Gulf, now over 14,000 square kilometres large, which threatens the Louisiana fishing industry. Conservation efforts to redress the problem, receive less than $15million a year along the entire length of the Mississippi. … details
