The farmlands of the Midwest are contributing to a dead zone the size of Connecticut in the Gulf of Mexico, where low oxygen levels have made it impossible for fish and other aquatic life to survive.

On Wednesday, policymakers from across the Midwest met in Columbus to talk about ways to ease that dead zone and solve other agriculture-runoff problems, including the kind of toxic algae that plagues Lake Erie each summer.

“We need to maintain our (agricultural) productivity but be mindful of the environmental impact we have,” said Greg LaBarge, a field specialist in agronomic systems for Ohio State University Extension.

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