The Feed

The world is facing a serious food shortage crisis. With the global population of 8 billion expected to grow by at least 30% over the next few decades, we need more food than ever before. Food security is a crucial issue for governments around the world—a growing population means more people need more food, but the amount of arable land available is not increasing. The United Nations states that there is currently a world food crisis in which over 1 billion people are facing starvation.

When discussing plant nutrition, most people are familiar with NPK. We see this content prominently displayed on bags of fertilizer at retail locations. But macronutrients for plants goes beyond NPK. Calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S) make up secondary macronutrients for plants. These nutrients are as important as NPK, but are needed in slightly lower quantities.

Each year, The Fertilizer Institute collects data from member companies to track and highlight industry improvement in sustainability performance in key priority areas of workforce safety, energy and the environment, fertilizer use, and industry innovation. The 2022 report was released in February of this year.

U.S. fertilizer manufacturers, importers and retailers are heavily invested in making sure that farming is profitable and sustainable. The U.S. fertilizer industry operates in a global economy, and the prices farmers pay for fertilizer are subject to a complex web of global supply and demand factors: