In Southern California, about 80% of the freshwater supply is used for farming. Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau meet with executive chef and farmer Adam Navidi from Future Foods Farms in Brea, CA. Chef Adam uses an innovative farming design called aquaponics to grow lettuce, vegetables, and even fish with less water than the average family uses at home on a daily basis.

Kevin Lutz is an Agriculture Conservation Technician and Assistant Agriculture Program Manager with the Lancaster County Conservation District. This scientist works with farmers to protect their land and the associated local waterways. He can be found doing everything from checking the construction of a manure storage facility on a dairy farm to walking fields and developing a conservation plan on a hog farm to comparing water quality reading in local streams. Sometimes he can even be found selling trees at the Conservation District’s annual tree sale! The variety in his job keeps it exciting, while the end result keeps it rewarding.

Agricultural runoff contributes almost half of the nutrients that feed the Chesapeake Bay dead zone. Join Philippe Cousteau and the EarthEcho Expeditions team as they learn about life on a dairy farm in Lancaster, PA.

What is eutrophication? How might the food on my plate be connected to a Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico? Fertilizers used on crops and manure from livestock can both runoff into waterways where the nitrogen and phosphorus they contain contribute to algal blooms, eutrophication and dead zones.

The Academy Award nominated documentary Food, Inc. provides an outstanding overview of many of the issues associated with modern industrial food production. These materials help focus viewing of the film on potential environmental impacts, and include both short and long answer questions that can be used with specific short segments of the film.