00:00The Mississippi River flows through the heart of America.
00:07A place of rich tradition.
00:12And stunning landscapes.
00:16It is also home to some of the most productive farmland in the world.
00:23But this success comes with a price.
00:27The very fertilizers that help farmers produce record yields are greening America's waters,
00:35creating dead zones upriver and downriver.
00:39We are wasting a lot of fertilizer, a lot of energy, a lot of money,
00:43at the same time that we're having very serious impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
00:48It's not natural to be swimming in the water and not see living organisms.
00:52Unswimmable, undrinkable water that is inhospitable to life.
00:57We've painted the world, all of the agricultural lands of the world, in phosphorus and nitrogen.
01:03Why is it becoming unsafe? Why are the nitrates going up?
01:07Meanwhile, on the land, valuable soil is washing away.
01:12Farming practices have created a series of unintended consequences.
01:16The lake will be filled with sediment in 300 years, and it will be gone in a little more than a few generations.
01:26Farmers, scientists, and citizens are working together toward a more sustainable future.
01:32New ideas are being tested. Policies are being challenged.
01:36It's a change. It's hard to break old habits and old traditions.
01:42I'm very optimistic. We've gone from ax and ox to tractors to GPSs to precision agriculture.
01:49We've come a long, long way.
01:51In a world where the demand for food is expected to double by mid-century,
01:55the future health of America's agricultural lands and waters is at stake.
01:59Our food supply is on the line and is headed toward a watery grave in the Gulf of Mexico.
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