Student 1:

1. Reduce nutrient loads from agricultural areas to downstream receiving water and marshes.
2. Reduce negative impacts of ag pesticides released to the environment
3. Ag-lands provide important hydrological and water quality functions in integrated landscape-urban, ag, and natural areas.

"All three issues are closely related to one another, and within the last year have all come into the forefront of the minds of many residents, water regulators and agricultural interests on an near the Treasure Coast.

.......During the past generation, a lot more attention has been directed at agricultural "offenders"  during these threshold-exceeding events.  It seems as though whenever a fish dies or a bird dies or someone smells something funny, agriculture is to blame.  Work should be done to reduce the negative impacts of ag pesticides released to the environment, but perhaps the bulk of that work needs to be done on the end consumer end of the commodity's market.  If Mrs. Mid-American Housewife had been educated to buy winter tomatoes and citrus with slight peel blemishes back in the 60's and 70s, we wouldn't have seen the development of half of the pesticides currently on the market.  Also, how about doing some work to better understand how, what, where and for how long certain pesticides remain in the environment.   The majority of the negative impacts of these chemicals on society is not their actual use, but rather the perception and ignorance of an "uneducated" majority of society insofar as what the impacts of these chemicals my be.  Misinformation and a little information can be dangerous weapons in the hands of civic leaders in the popular media.