A new study has found that more fertilizers and pesticides will enter waters near fields if farmers boost their corn acreage to meet demand for corn-based ethanol.
Purdue University researchers found that Indiana water sources near fields where farmers planted corn year after year had higher levels of nitrogen, fungicides and phosphorous than waters near fields where the crops were rotated between corn and soybeans.
They concluded that moving from corn-soybean crop rotations to continuous corn plantings worsens erosion and allows more fungicides and phosphorous to get into nearby surface waters.
Nitrogen and fungicides are also used more heavily on corn crops than soybean fields.
The findings appear in the online version of The Journal of Environmental Engineering. (AP)
