How to feed all the French? From the 1950s, the planet’s food needs were largely met thanks to a revolutionary discovery: the synthesis of nitrogen from the air. A chemical principle that allows agricultural yields to explode.
Except that today, excess nitrogen in the soil, in the air and in the water poses many problems. It threatens biodiversity, pollutes the soil and even participates in the formation of fine particles, harmful to human health.
Is there an alternative to these chemical fertilizers, really tenable on the scale of a country like France, of Europe, or even, of the world? Explanation.
Sources :
Evolution of population and agricultural land in the world, OECD
Use of synthetic fertilizers in France, Unifa
Yield of common wheat in France
Growing pulses to reduce the use of synthetic inputs, Agriculture and the environment, Ademe
Reshaping the European Agro-Food System and Closing Its Nitrogen Cycle, Billen et al., One Earth
Also read:
Getting out of chemical fertilizers in five years? Sylvestre Huet
Nitrogen sorcerer’s apprentices, Claude Aubert, Living earth
Brittany: breath of fresh air with ammonia, Splann