Reducing Nutrient Pollution in the Everglades Agricultural Area through Best Management Practices

Abstract

Environmental regulation can lead to improvement in environmental quality – sometimes in surprising ways. Some Florida farmers recently have been reducing the level of nutrient pollution discharged from their fields and entering sensitive Florida ecosystems from the level found in the irrigation water they use. They are doing this while continuing to operate their productive farms. Below I describe how this came about. This may be informative to other states with significant agricultural production that may have to confront the challenge of nutrient pollution soon in light of EPA’s priority emphasis on the problem.

Keywords: Everglades, agricultural, environment, ecosystem

JEL Classification: K41, N5, Q15