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Acknowledgements

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Library and Archives would like to thank our interviewees: Rob Martienssen, Zach Lippman, Doreen Ware, Dick McCombie, and Dave Jackson. Thanks also go to Tim Mulligan for his tour of Uplands farm and to Nick Gladman for his detailed introduction to the research being done there (and for the sorghum seeds).

Our gratitude also goes out to the staff at the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia and the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center in Riverhead, LI. In particular, our historian appreciates the time that Mark Bridgen and Alice Wise took to speak with us over the phone and Courtney Fenyo’s assistance with back issues of the Suffolk County Farm Bureau News. Jane Koropsak, Pete Genzer and Stacey Kuczewski of Brookhaven National Laboratory kindly provided us with research assistance and photographs.

Last but certainly not least, we would like to thank the Gardiner Foundation for their generous support of this project.

Plants need nitrogen to grow, but a significant portion of the nitrogen in fertilizers is not absorbed by the soil or used by the growing plants. Rather, it washes away into waterways, rivers, and the ocean. This in turn has had devastating effects on marine life. In some areas, excessive nitrogen in the oceans has caused algae blooms that kill wildlife, make it dangerous for people to consume fish or shellfish or in some cases even swim in affected waters. This problem isn’t limited to poorer countries. Nitrogen pollution is a serious problem here on Long Island. In our case, the nitrogen comes primarily from septic tanks and cesspools, although nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers also plays a role. Nitrogen pollution in the waters around Long Island has hampered fishing, made it dangerous to eat seafood from some areas, and caused environmental changes that make coastal areas more prone to flooding.