Low Information Voter on Nostr: Fertiliser has the dubious virtue of enabling terrible farming practices to still ...
Fertiliser has the dubious virtue of enabling terrible farming practices to still make a saleable product. For a while.
But without Haber-Bosch fixed nitrogen (and "Green Revolution" crops able to utilise it in large quantities to send yield-per-hectare soaring to modern levels), the global population would have maxed out in about 1910. As indeed it almost did, due to famine and malnutrition even in Europe.
Chilean nitrate (guano) was the only established alternative, and that was mined wildly unsustainably. "Fossil fertiliser".
Totally agree regarding soil carbon and soil structure, but we are riding a fertiliser tiger, without which six billion people would die in a year. I don't have a solution, but outsourcing fertiliser production to China (in Australia's case) or Russia (in the EUs) sure isn't a step forward...
The solution to microplastics is to stop requiring biodegradation additives in consumer goods. The cost of this change is not merely free but actually negative. Biodegradation into microplastics only replaces as aesthetic problem with a health problem.
But without Haber-Bosch fixed nitrogen (and "Green Revolution" crops able to utilise it in large quantities to send yield-per-hectare soaring to modern levels), the global population would have maxed out in about 1910. As indeed it almost did, due to famine and malnutrition even in Europe.
Chilean nitrate (guano) was the only established alternative, and that was mined wildly unsustainably. "Fossil fertiliser".
Totally agree regarding soil carbon and soil structure, but we are riding a fertiliser tiger, without which six billion people would die in a year. I don't have a solution, but outsourcing fertiliser production to China (in Australia's case) or Russia (in the EUs) sure isn't a step forward...
The solution to microplastics is to stop requiring biodegradation additives in consumer goods. The cost of this change is not merely free but actually negative. Biodegradation into microplastics only replaces as aesthetic problem with a health problem.