Keeping Millions of Pounds of Phosphorus from Entering the Lakes A Note from Fund StaffThe Partnership for Ag Resource Management (PARM) started as an ambitious idea to prove that agricultural (ag) retailers could make a profit selling products and services that improve water quality. It has become a regional network that empowers ag retailers as a valuable…

Promoting Agricultural Innovation to Improve Water Quality Lake Erie has made an impressive comeback since the 1960s when some parts were declared dead from industrial pollutants. Eleven million people, from Toledo to Cleveland to Buffalo, depend on Lake Erie for their drinking water, and the lake supports a rich ecosystem. Now agriculture, not industry, threatens its shores. …

Stopped Thousands of Pounds of Nitrogen from Entering the Lakes In 2002, the Great Lakes Protection Fund organized a team of insurers, farm operators, farm advisors and federal and state farm agencies to develop warranty products to protect farmers against financial losses that might result from adopting new best management practices. From this effort, the…

Sounding the Alarm on Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus Nothing makes headlines like residents who are told not to drink the water from their taps. The Toledo water crisis in 2014 and the “Lake Erie is Dead” declaration in the 1960s are of the same problem—too many nutrients in the water.  Nutrients like phosphorous, commonly used to…