Eat fresh.
Eat Maryland.

Why the Farm Next Door Affects What's in the Bay

Every fall, after the corn and soybean harvests wrap up across the Eastern Shore and the Piedmont, a lot of Maryland farmland sits bare through the winter. Rain hits exposed soil, loosens it, and carries nitrogen and phosphorus from leftover fertilizer down through drainage ditches and streams and eventually into the Chesapeake. That nutrient load feeds algae blooms that consume oxygen as they decompose, and the result is hypoxic water where fish and crabs and oysters can't survive. The dead zones in the Bay's main channel have been measured and documented for decades, and agricultural runoff is one of the primary drivers, alongside wastewater and stormwater from development.