The development of modern fertilizers revolutionized food production around the world and allowed farmers to produce higher quality food in larger amounts. With the world population experiencing a boom in the early 1900s when fertilizers debuted, their invention played a significant role in supporting the growing population on limited farmland.
Calcium nitrate was the first-ever synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, developed in 1903 from nitric acid through the electric arc process. The Haber-Bosch process, developed by Fritz Haber in the early 1900s, allowed scientists to manufacture ammonia and deliver high levels of nitrogen to growing plants.
Over the following years, scientists developed better and more efficient ways to create fertilizers containing essential plant nutrients. More than a century later, fertilizers still play a critical role in global food production, especially now that the world population has ballooned to 7.8 billion people. Nitrogen and phosphorous are key components in most synthetic fertilizers and play a significant role in critical plant processes such as photosynthesis (phosphorous) and nutrient absorption (nitrogen).
However, while phosphorus and nitrogen are key to feeding the world’s growing population, their production and use come at a great cost. Synthetic fertilizer production is responsible for 2.1% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and their use releases a greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide (N2O) that is more than 250 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
A research team from the University of Turin and the University of Exeter’s Greenpeace Research Laboratories found that in 2018 alone, the entire supply chain for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer produced 1.3 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Emissions from the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer supply chain in 2018 surpassed emissions from agriculture by more than 10% and even exceeded emissions from the commercial aviation space.
Greenpeace Research Laboratories’ Dr. Reyes Tirado stated at the time that while synthetic fertilizers are increasing crop yields across the world, their use is not environmentally sustainable.
Advancements in technology could help the industry develop more environmentally friendly fertilizers without affecting their efficiency. In recent years, major investors such as Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have invested billions of dollars into firms dedicated to studying technologies that could reduce or even eliminate the need for synthetic chemical fertilizers. Startup tracker PitchBook notes that investors channeled a whopping $6.6 billion into the agricultural biotechnology sector in 2021 and 2022 alone.
Possible alternatives that could reduce our reliance on synthetic fertilizers include slow-releasing fertilizers, cover crops and microbes that act as green fertilizers.
California-based company Pivot-Bio is among the first agricultural biotech companies to develop nitrogen-fixing microbes for corn cultivation. Ernie Sanders, Pivot-Bio senior vice president of product innovation, says that these microbes grow on the roots and create a little nitrogen each day, essentially delivering the critical nutrient directly to plants.
While those advanced fertilizers are under development, farmers will have to optimize their current use of products from manufacturers such as Compass Minerals International Inc. (NYSE: CMP) so that they keep their production costs affordable while meeting the need for food around the world.
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