One way to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay is to put more land into agriculture, according to a new report just out from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. This is a surprise. Chesapeake Bay supporters have long contended that agriculture is the bay's biggest problem. And it is. In spite of the huge improvements in the past decade, most of the nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment still choking the life out of the bay comes from farm runoff.
  The report issued jointly Wednesday with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture says that a switch to biofuels crops could help clean up the bay, provide 18,000 jobs in the bay watershed and produce 500 million gallons of USA-grown fuel, enough to supply the Washington metro area for six weeks.
  Winter cover crops like rye and barley, permanent stands of switchgrass and plantings of fast growing trees like willow and poplar could be used as feed stocks for ethanol production. The problem right now is infrastructure - processors aren't going to build expensive plants without a steady supply of feedstocks, and farmers aren't going to plant feedstocks without a steady market.
  The Associated Press reported on the new way of thinking in a story published yesterday. You can read the New York Times version here: 
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/20/business/AP-US-Chesapeake-Biofuels-Maryland.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=farming&st=nyt 


     Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the farm pond.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/on-the-hunt-for-a-mega-shark/5dy5z238