Video revolution of the post-war period, synthesis fertilizers today pose many problems with the environment and our health. But can we really do to nourish France? Europe? The whole world?
by and
How to feed all the French? From the 1950s, the food needs of the planet were largely covered thanks to a revolutionary discovery: the synthesizing of the air nitrogen. A chemical principle that allows to explode agricultural yields.
Except that today, excess nitrogen in soils, in the air and in the water poses many problems. It threatens biodiversity, pollutes soils and even participates in the formation of fine particles, harmful for human health.
Is there an alternative to these chemical fertilizers, really tenable at the scale of a country like France, from Europe, or even, the world? Explanation.
Sources:
Evolution of the population and agricultural areas in the world, OECD
Use of synthesis fertilizers in France, UNIFA
Yield of tender wheat in France
Cultivate legumes to reduce the use of synthetic inputs, agriculture and environment, ADEME
Reshaping The European Agro- Food System and Closing Its Nitrogen Cycle, Billen et al., One Earth
Read also:
Exit chemical fertilizers in five years? Sylvestre Huet
Nitrogen wizard apprentices, Claude Aubert, living earth
Brittany: ammonia air bowl, sprnan