After serving for two days as a delegate to the Global Food Security Forum in Rabat, Morocco, I am more convinced than ever of the complexity of the problems surrounding feeding the world's hungry and undernourished people.
The reactive nitrogen issue began in earnest with a jointly authored paper in Science magazine trumpeting the exponential increase in reactive nitrogen release(s) to the environment since 1950. The article drew a line out to 2050 predicting further and alarming increases in N release. Just for background, reactive nitrogen is any form of N except N2; or the atmospheric form.
While at the Far West meeting this week in Pasco, Washington I was inspired to write my first blog – at least first for the new TFI website. Things workwise thankfully slow down a bit this time of year, but in addition, despite having numerous topics upon which I could potentially blog, I have been suffering from a bit of writers’ block.
To some degree I need to be inspired by the topic; such as the crazy carnival atmosphere at the previous climate meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In recent months, Chesapeake Bay states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and stakeholders from both the agricultural and environmental community have been discussing a proposed voluntary effort termed “agricultural certainty”. If implemented correctly, the program could provide farmers certainty that states would not impose additional regulations on them for a given period of time with regard to environmental protection.
This month the world will have its 7 billionth person born. People’s diets are moving in a direction that requires more resources to produce food. By 2050, the world is projected to have 9 billion people. Meeting the needs to feed all of these people will no doubt be a challenge, but one the public often forgets.
An interesting article, “Freezing the Footprint of Food,” from a recent issue of the journal Nature landed in my e-mail inbox this morning. In the article author Jason Clay of WWF (formerly World Wildlife Fund) outlines eight steps that taken together could enable farming to feed 10 billion people and keep the world inhabitable.
There is an increasing focus on fertilizers as a problem for the environment, not a solution to meeting the food needs of a growing population. While there is not a one size fits all answer, we know that mandatory rate reductions and input limits are not an environmental, economic or socially beneficial answer either.
Being on the earth’s bandwagon isn’t a bad thing and here in the Nation’s capitol and the surrounding wealthy suburbs it’s not difficult to find an eco-label on most any food or household item. From sustainable detergents to organic cheerios and organic cotton sheets, the market is flooded with eco-products.
The twenty plus years I have spent in the fertilizer industry and thus in the agriculture community have flown by – in large part because I believe the role we play in improving peoples’ lives is undeniable.
Washington, D.C. – The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) issued the following statement today regarding the Interior Department’s Five Year Plan on offshore oil-and-gas drilling:
