Getting Our Nitrogen Fix!

An article from SEED Magazine about how we learned to feed ourselves because we learned how to feed plants - the story of modern fertilizer and our ability to make food from air.

It argues that another huge technological leap is needed as synthetic fertilizers have devastating environmental consequences, such as the dead zones off the Gulf Coast. (Excessive amounts of nitrogen destroy the delicate equilibrium of the ocean, as they trigger toxic algal blooms that sap the sea of oxygen.) Furthermore, because the Haber process requires intense pressure and high heat, the production of fertilizer currently consumes more than 1 percent of the world’s energy supply and more than 5 percent of its natural gas. Paradoxically, just as climate change is threatening the global food harvest, our primary means of nourishing those crops only intensifies our use of fossil fuels.

A great read about our soil and effects of excessive nitrogen:
Tales from the Underground: A Natural History of Subterranean Life