While TreeHugger wishes that all of our food was organic and made without fertilizers, the fact is that much of North America's agriculture is dependent
on nitrogen fertilizer, and it is made with natural gas.
For this reason, it's important to figure out where — and by how much — farmers can afford to cut back
on their nitrogen fertilizer use.
Not exact matches
Farmers are earning huge profits
on their wheat, soybeans, cotton and other crops; strong demand for (and relatively tight supplies of) grain, oilseeds and other key food inputs encouraged them to use large volumes of
fertilizer (notably potash, phosphate and
nitrogen) to boost their crop yields.
But
fertilizer stocks rose
on a rising tide of enthusiasm for favorable market trends and falling operational expenses heading into 2017, which could set the tone for a long - awaited recovery in potash,
nitrogen, and phosphate prices.
The ban
on synthetically - produced mineral
nitrogen in organic agriculture confines the productivity to the natural system limits (i.e. N - fixation) or the limits defined by the annual nutrient balance of the farm, including imported fodder and organic
fertilizers.
Long before the rise of modern agriculture, humans relied
on three things to bring
nitrogen to barren soils: lightning strikes,
nitrogen - fixing bacteria, and natural
fertilizers.
The invention of synthetic
fertilizer, where
nitrogen is taken from an inert chemical form in the air and turned into ammonia, has had a profound effect
on nitrogen cycling.
You could argue [
on] the climate change [one], but [
on nutrient] pollution we have used so much [
fertilizer] and so much
nitrogen compounds are loose in the environment, it is hard to recognize our coastal oceans anymore; of the species that are gone [and] that kind of thing.
On April 19, 1995, an unemployed security guard with an antigovernment vendetta detonated more than two tons of
nitrogen fertilizer mixed with fuel at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
Scientists have recently used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) to evaluate the effects of various sources of supplemental
nitrogen fertilizer on the chemical composition of soil organic matter.
When a
nitrogen fertilizer is added to the soil, it increases its microbiological activity by activating both processes that at the same time they depend
on factors such as such as climatic, edaphic and field management.
The authors of a new study say that there has been limited information available about the influence of
fertilizer sources of
nitrogen that can be injected and fertigated
on fruit yield and quality in organic blackberry.
MARS
FERTILIZER The rover Curiosity has discovered «fixed» nitrogen, a biochemically important form of the element also found in fertilizer
FERTILIZER The rover Curiosity has discovered «fixed»
nitrogen, a biochemically important form of the element also found in
fertilizerfertilizer on Earth.
«Many commercial
fertilizers focus primarily
on infusing soil with chemical forms of
nitrogen,» Ferrieri said.
The reduction of
nitrogen is predicted to result in a decline in soil fertility and agricultural productivity downstream of the projects, leading to a greater reliance
on chemical
fertilizers.
And Cornell University researcher David Pimentel found that organic farms use 63 percent of the energy used by same - size conventional farms, which rely
on large amounts of
nitrogen fertilizer produced synthetically with large amounts of energy.
Normally, Ortner said, farmers use about 200 pounds of
nitrogen fertilizer per acre, but now he's down to about 135 pounds per acre
on the test plot.
On a 40 - acre plot where he grows corn and soybeans in rotation, Ortner has worked with Michigan State University researchers for the past several years to reduce his
nitrogen fertilizer use.
Just a tad less
fertilizer on Midwestern farms could lead to big drops in
nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi River without sacrificing crop yields, a new study shows.
With the help of the Delta Institute and the Climate Trust, nonprofits focused
on market - driven emissions reduction efforts, offsets are paid out to farmers when they document reductions in their
nitrogen fertilizer use.
The effects of
nitrogen and phosphorus
fertilizers on crop yields are well - researched, of course.
In contrast, after more than 30 years of trying to create corn that can convert atmospheric
nitrogen into usable ammonia instead of relying
on fertilizers, Ursin says she is still far from finding a way.
Broschat's
fertilizer finding is critical because a state law limits the amount of
nitrogen and phosphorus that people can put
on their lawns.
As farmers spend billions of dollars spreading
nitrogen on their fields this spring, researchers at the University of Missouri are working toward less reliance
on the
fertilizer.
Wang's research group designed a five - metal catalyst based
on these high - entropy - alloy nanoparticles and demonstrated superior catalytic performance for selective oxidation of ammonia to
nitrogen oxide, a reaction used by the chemical industry to produce nitric acid, an important chemical in the large - scale production of
fertilizers and other products.
This means that
on the scale of food crops, adding significant levels of
nitrogen to the soil through
fertilizer presents a number of problems, particularly river and groundwater pollution.
Bowman intentionally made mistakes
on one test plot — «areas where we didn't apply enough
nitrogen fertilizer, where we simulated mistakes in the applicator, where we shut the boom off for a short period of time or plugged it up and ran for a while,» Bowman said.
Heavy use of
nitrogen fertilizers on farms, for example, allows more ammonia to run off into the oceans.
By producing more food
on less land, it may be possible to reduce these emissions, but this so - called intensification often involves increasing
fertilizer use, which can lead to large emissions of
nitrogen - containing gases that also contribute to global warming.
Humanity currently depends
on atmospheric
nitrogen to produce enough
fertilizer to maintain world food supply.
On top of that, many hybrids are selectively bred to survive low levels of magnesium and most conventional
fertilizers use
nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, and do nothing to replenish magnesium levels.
Perhaps instead of focusing
on regulation and instead focusing
on incenting positive behavior, we could get more digesters in place which would produce clean energy, reduce the amount of
nitrogen and other nutrient pollution and provide farmers with another couple sources of revenue (electricity sales, fiber bedding sales (or savings) and increased
fertilizer value of the liquid digestate as compared to raw manure.
Even in Europe, with its strong research programs
on nutrient balances and stringent policies for reducing
fertilizer runoff,
nitrogen pollution remains substantial.
The claim that CO2 immediately increases plant growth and acts as a
fertilizer is a highly oversimplified argument, since plant carbon uptake is dependent
on water, temperature, and
nitrogen suppy.
The paper didn't fail to mention what we have reported
on before, that corn farming for ethanol using management practices such as commercial
fertilizer application, mechanical tillage, and intensive drainage is the most important driver of this increase in
nitrogen pollution.
On Thursday, the Obama administration announced a «comprehensive approach» to enlist American farmers in a voluntary effort to cut greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, and
nitrogen oxides — through programs and incentives designed to reduce
fertilizer use, encouraging tree planting, and turn poop into power by capturing methane.
The effect of the pulse crop
on the nitrous oxide emissions from a following cereal should also be measured, since it is known that
nitrogen fertilizer requirements of wheat and barley are reduced if they follow a pulse crop in the rotation.
We did not find to date any published studies which compared the effects of type of tillage system and
nitrogen fertilizer placement method
on nitric oxide emissions.
Studies should compare crops grown in a zero tillage system with a conventional tillage system, with
nitrogen fertilizer banded
on the cereals.
Widespread implementation of the Haber - Bosch process — an industrial means for converting the limitless pool of atmospheric N2 into usable forms of
nitrogen, including
fertilizer — had released much of the world from
nitrogen constraints
on crop growth.
They are the extinction rate; deforestation; the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and the flow of
nitrogen and phosphorous (used
on land as
fertilizer) into the ocean.
On the other hand, nitrous oxide comes from
nitrogen fertilizers used in agriculture.
Conventional stockless arable farms depend
on the input of synthetic
nitrogen fertilizers, while stockpiled manure and slurry
on livestock farms create additional emissions and other environmen - tal problems.
The Delta Institute was presented with the Innovation award for the registration
on ACR of the first U.S.
fertilizer management project, a Michigan pilot currently in verification for reducing
nitrogen fertilizer use
on corn.
Depending
on nitrogen carryover from previous management, additional
fertilizer may be required beyond that provided through cover crop mineralization to maximize corn yield.
Oil is either there or it isn't — while corn production is built
on a tripod of water and weather; resistance to plant disease, blight, and pests; and the availability of synthetic
nitrogen fertilizers.
Grazing livestock merely recycle a few compounds of
nitrogen, all of which either return to the atmosphere or provide valuable
nitrogen fertilizers for the plants they graze
on.
The government regulations
on the total maximum daily load (tmdl) of synthetic
nitrogen, or phosphorous
fertilizer coming off of farms were established under the Clean Water Act.
I whole - heartedly support clean water / fresh air legislative efforts, reducing dependence
on oil through funding of promising energy technologies, and reinstatement of the use of
nitrogen - rich miracle
fertilizer experimentation in the famine - stricken regions of Africa — that have, ironically, been attacked as potential global warming threats.
If Canadian farmers ever put 2 and 2 together - figure out why it's increasingly hard to afford
nitrogen fertilizer - they'll pin Minime's hide up
on the dining room wall of the CHÃ cents TEAU LAURIER.