17 HEADLINE #WATERHEROES FOCUS on ALGAE Want to hear more from Dr. Smith? Reach out to her at: Stephanie.Smith@Xyleminc.com Q. How can scientists work with the agricultural community to help address HABs? Dr. Smith: I'm a little bit at odds with the scientific community on this topic. I can't argue against the reality that agricultural-based runoff of nutrients is clearly an issue driving algal blooms. But, I also grew up in a rural community, so I know that farmers, by their nature, are good stewards of the land. It's their livelihood, so to argue they are just irresponsibly over-fertilizing is not reasonable. Why would they waste their money like that, and why would they willingly hurt the waters that support their livestock and families? The productivity that farmers need per acre today is about 20-fold of what it was 100 years ago. How are they going to keep up? How are they going do that if they can't fertilize? Soon enough there will be nine billion people on this planet. How are we going to feed them? Pointing the finger at the farm community and agriculture is a very myopic view of the HAB issue. We have an ever-growing population and fewer and fewer resources to feed that population. So, it's a much bigger issue than regulating runoff. I've never met a farmer that wouldn't comply with those kinds of regulations. They're willing to do it, but we've got to provide them with sustainable tools for doing that. They've still got to meet certain productivity targets to feed us all. There is a huge body of scientific evidence... connecting this issue to increasing global temperatures...and other effects of climate change... This trend is not going to reverse itself.