Using petroleum products may not be good for the environment, but the resulting fertilizer is perfectly safe for plants, microbes and humans , provided it is used in reasonable amounts. So why do terms like oil-based fertilizer and petroleum fertilizer exist?
That is unfortunate, because there are very good arguments for using organic products instead of synthetic products, in some gardening situations. But trying to explain the concept of building soil structure and increasing levels of organic matter are more complex and require more knowledge of both the writer and the audience. It is so much easier to use name calling.
The term, petroleum-based fertilizer, is easier to understand and more convincing. And, from an environmental standpoint, there is no difference between petroleum and methane and you darned well know it. If we agree with your first point, then you will also have to agree that organic fertilizer like fish emulsion or seaweed extract is also made from petroleum. They too use a lot of petroleum to manufacture and ship around the country.
Most people would not agree with this. There is a big difference between petroleum and methane when it comes to the pollution they cause. To be clear, I never said petroleum was not used. Most synthetic fertilizers have chelators like EDTA. EDTA is not cheap and would not be found in cheaper products. Chelates are also used to solublize the micronutrients — not the macro-nutrients. From wiki: EDTA is mainly synthesised from ethylenediamine 1,2-diaminoethane , formaldehyde, and sodium cyanide.
I found these really helpful. Thanks for sharing! Oft times that smell is sulfur or a biproduct of where and how they source the soil. Organics generally must be broken down by soil microbes before plants can use the nutrients.
Microbes respond to heat and moisture. So do plants. On a practical side, organics allows for a one-time application rather than multiple applications often needed by synthetics to avoid salt-burn of roots. Also less chance of loss of soluble nutrients and subsequent contamination of groundwaters. The discovery wasn't adopted on a global-scale until after the war, when methods were found to extract mass quantities of natural gas.
Today, natural gas is the most reliable source for fertilizer ammonia, though some countries continue to use coal. The use of fertilizer has dramatically increased crops yields. Had average yields from remained unchanged, by the turn of the next century, in order to support the population, food crops would have taken up nearly half of all land on ice-free continents, Smil wrote in a research paper.
In Alberta, the first significant discovery of natural gas was in Turner Valley in But development of the industry was delayed by the Depression and two world wars. Soon after the Second World War, production of natural gas quadrupled. Canada is the fifth-largest supplier of natural gas in the world, and most of that comes from Alberta. Less than 10 per cent of extracted natural gas is converted into ammonia for fertilizer; Canada is the world's sixth-largest exporter of that ammonia.
Around the world, the use of nitrogen fertilizer grows steadily each year. Within Canada, its use is about 50 per cent higher than it was a decade ago. Thus like our addiction to cheap oil, our reliance on cheap nitrogen is leading us into politically unstable places. Other nations with enough natural gas deposits to keep us in nitrogen for a while include Venezuela, Iran, and Iraq. We aim to inspire more people to talk about climate change and to believe that meaningful change is not only possible but happening right now.
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Krista Hozyash Food. Claudine Benmar. Tom Philpott. Stephanie Ogburn. COP26 made real progress. Shannon Osaka. Kate Yoder. How fertilizers are made?
Each year, the European fertilizer industry transforms millions of tons of air, natural gas and mined ores into products based on the three essential plant nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
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