Synthetic
Nitrogen Fertilizer
It
is time for world governments and environmental organizations to boldly confront
humanity’s dependency on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and its negative
consequences that undermine sustainable food production, not only from the land
itself, but also from our aquatic ecosystems
.
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Synthetic nitrogen used for land based crop
fertilizer has made it possible for an additional 3.5 billion people to be
alive today. Without it, we would only
have enough food to feed half of our current world population of 7 billion. Approximately 50% of the nitrogen contained
in the muscles and other tissue of our bodies originated from synthetic
nitrogen.
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Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is produced by the
100-year-old Haber-Bosch process that uses primarily nonrenewable natural gas
as a key ingredient. This nitrogen
fertilizer production model is inherently unsustainable.
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Worldwide synthetic nitrogen fertilizer runoffs
into rivers and oceans from croplands and other associated chemical reactions
that synthetic nitrogen has with the environment contribute greatly to the
creation of marine dead zones, aquatic acidification, and global warming. These all have profound negative impacts on
the capacity of our marine and freshwater ecosystems to produce both wild and
farmed seafood.
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These negative impacts will only intensify
unless improvements are made to maximize the efficient application of synthetic
nitrogen to croplands on a worldwide basis.
Ultimately, we will need to find renewables to replace the fossil fuels used
in its production.
Sea Port believes that this New Year will welcome in a
new age where there is a shared holistic concept that food production practices
on land are inextricably linked to the healthy food production capabilities of
Earth’s aquatic environments. By boldly confronting our dependency upon
synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, we will help advance sustainability improvements
for our biosphere. Such improvements
will be critical as we endeavor to feed 3 billion more people (primarily by
aquaculture) as our world population expands to 10 billion by the year 2050.
Sea Port is excited for the coming New Year. We will continue to work toward our
corporate goal of advancing sustainable seafood production. In addition, we will wholehearted support others
who share the holistic concept that improvements in land based agriculture
accrue sustainability benefits to the entire global seafood industry and we
believe that improving the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on croplands
certainly embodies this holistic concept.
Happy New Year!
