Monsanto’s Evil Twin: Disturbing Facts About the Fertilizer Industry
What do you know about the worldwide chemical fertilizer industry? If you’re like most people, not much. There’s plenty of press coverage and consumer awareness when it comes to genetically engineered food and crops, and the environmental hazards of pesticides and animal drugs. But the fertilizer industry? Not so much—even though it’s the largest segment of corporate agribusiness ($175 billion in annual sales), and a major destructive force in polluting the environment, disrupting the climate, and damaging public health. Learning the facts about chemical fertilizers and the companies who produce them will give you yet another reason to boycott chemical/GMO/factory farmed foods and choose organic and grassfed animal products instead. Remember, organic standards established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibit the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, GMOs, or animal drugs. Here’s a list of underreported facts that raise
disturbing environmental and regulatory questions about
Monsanto’s Evil Twin—the chemical fertilizer industry. Like most of the other multinational players in Big Food Inc., the fertilizer industry has secretive, vertical or “cartel” like qualities that obscure operations and make regulation difficult. Increasingly, seed and GMO companies, farm equipment producers, pesticide/herbicide makers and crop and soil data producers work in each others' interest seamlessly and behind the scenes, according to ETC. As ETC points out: “With combined annual revenue of over
$385 billion, these companies call the shots. Who will
dominate the industrial food chain? And what does it mean
for farmers, food sovereignty and climate chaos?” That’s bad for the environment—but good for fertilizer
companies. Thanks to low natural gas prices, after decades
of
importing nitrogen fertilizer from the Middle East, the
number of U.S. nitrogen fertilizer plants is growing. The
three
leading domestic producers—Koch Industries, Orascom
Construction Industries and CF Industries—are reaping the
benefits. Between 2005 and 2010, U.S. growers of genetically
engineered corn, largely for GMO animal feed and ethanol,
increased their nitrogen fertilizer
use by one billion pounds. New nitrogen fertilizer
plants are being situated close to the corn and soybean
growers to feed demand more efficiently. “It is a highly
concentrated and oligopolistic-type industry,”
says Glen Buckley, a fertilizer industry consultant who
spent 30 years working at CF Industries, based in Deerfield,
Ill. Asked how National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permits, which allow farming operations to discharge
nitrogen, are “enforced,” the
EPA says, “The permit will require the facility to
sample its discharges and notify EPA and the state
regulatory agency of these results. In addition, the permit
will require the facility to notify EPA and the state
regulatory agency when the facility determines it is not in
compliance with the requirements of a permit. EPA and state
regulatory agencies also will send inspectors to companies
in order to determine if they are in compliance with the
conditions imposed under their permits.” Two-thirds of the U.S. drinking water supply is contaminated at high levels with carcinogenic nitrates or nitrites, almost all from excessive use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Some public wells have nitrogen at such a high level that it is dangerous and even deadly for children to drink the tap water. Nitrogen fertilizer is also the greatest contributor to
the infamous “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico, the
Chesapeake Bay, the coasts of California and Oregon, and 400
other spots around the world. Since very little synthetic
nitrogen fertilizer was used before 1950, all of the damage
we see today occurred in the last 60 years. In some rural areas, fertilizer pollution levels are 10
times beyond so-called “allowable levels,” although golf
courses and homeowner fertilizer and pesticide use in urban
areas also contribute to the problem. Last fall, the Des
Moines Water Works sued three neighboring farming counties
over their nitrate discharges but,
reported the Associated Press, "the litigation has
provoked intense criticism from Iowa's powerful agricultural
industry, which argues that farmers are already taking
voluntary measures to control them." "It [Anhydrous ammonia] must be stored and handled under
high pressure, requiring specially designed and
well-maintained equipment," says the University of
Minnesota's
extension site. "In addition, to ensure their safety,
workers must be adequately educated about the procedures and
personal protective equipment required to safely handle this
product." "…excessive [fertilizer] application rates cut profits and are bad for soils and the environment. The loss of soil carbon has many adverse consequences for productivity, one of which is to decrease water storage. There are also adverse implications for air and water quality, since carbon dioxide will be released into the air, while excessive nitrogen contributes to the nitrate pollution problem." Not surprisingly, much of the organic carbon decline the
researchers identified occurred in the fertilized soil found
in corn belts. There is growing recognition that synthetic fertilizers are a major contributor to climate-destroying greenhouse gases (GHG). The estimated cost of environmental damage from reactive nitrogen emissions is between $70 billion and $320 billion in the European Union alone." 8) Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Chemical Fertilizers Are a Major and Persistent Greenhouse Gas Pollutant Nitrous oxide (N2O) is responsible for approximate 5 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Nitrous oxide is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's nitrogen cycle, and has a variety of natural sources. However, human activities such as agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, wastewater management, and industrial processes are increasing the amount of N2O in the atmosphere. The primary cause of N2O contamination of the atmosphere are the nitrogen fertilizers used in industrial (non-organic) agriculture. Nitrous oxide molecules, in comparison to other greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane, stay in the atmosphere for a very long time, an average of 114 years. NO2 also has much more potent heat-trapping characteristics. The impact of one pound of N2O on warming the atmosphere is 300 times that of one pound of carbon dioxide. Although transportation, industry and energy producers are significant and well-recognized GHG polluters, few people understand that the worst U.S. greenhouse gas emitter is “Food Incorporated,” industrial food and farming. Industrial food and farming accounts for a huge portion of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. EPA’s ridiculously low estimates range from 7 percent to 12 percent, but some climate scientists believe the figure could be as high as 50 percent or more. Industrial food and farming also destroys the natural capacity of plants and soils to sequester atmospheric carbon. Many climate scientists now admit that they have previously drastically underestimated the dangers of the non-CO2 GHGs, including nitrous oxide, which are responsible (along with methane) for at least 20 percent of global warming. Nearly all nitrous oxide pollution comes from dumping billions of pounds of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and sewage sludge on farmland (chemical fertilizers and sludge are banned on organic farms and ranches), mainly to grow animal feed or produce ethanol. Given that about 80 percent of U.S. agriculture is devoted to producing factory-farmed meat, dairy and animal feed, reducing agriculture GHGs means eliminating the over-production and over-consumption of factory-farmed meat and animal products. The most climate-damaging greenhouse gas poison used by industrial farmers is synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Pesticide manufacture and use are also serious problems, which generate their own large share of GHGs during manufacture and use (more than 25 billion pounds per year). But, about six times more chemical fertilizer is used than toxic pesticides on U.S. farms. German chemical corporations developed the industrial processes for the two most widely used forms of synthetic nitrogen in the early 1900s. But until World War II, U.S. use of synthetic nitrogen as a fertilizer was limited to about 5 percent of the total nitrogen applied. Up until that time most nitrogen inputs came from animal manures, composts and fertilizer (cover) crops, just as it does on organic farms today. During the Second World War, all of the European powers and the U.S. greatly expanded their facilities for producing nitrogen for bombs, ammunition and fertilizer for the war effort. Since then, both the use of nitrogen fertilizer and bomb-making capacity have soared. By the 1990s, more than 90 percent of nitrogen fertilizer used in the U.S. was synthetic. According to the USDA, the average U.S. nitrogen fertilizer use per year from 1998 to 2007 was 24 billion 661 million pounds. To produce that nitrogen, the manufacturers released at least 6.7 pounds of GHG for every pound produced. That’s 165 billion, 228 million pounds of GHGs spewed into the atmosphere every year, just for the manufacture of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Most of those emissions are nitrous oxide, the most damaging emissions of U.S. agriculture. Regenerative Organic Farming and Ranching Can Drastically Reduce GHG Emissions The currently catastrophic, but largely unrecognized,
greenhouse gas damage from chemical farms and industrial
food production and distribution must be reversed. This will
require wholesale changes in farming practices, government
subsidies, food processing and handling. It will require the
conversion of millions of chemical farms, feedlots and CAFOs
(concentrated animal feeding operations) to organic
production. It will require the establishment of millions of
urban backyard and community gardens. In the meantime, consumers should boycott all foods and products emanating from Monsanto and its Evil Twin: the chemical fertilizer industry. Martha Rosenberg is a contributing writer to the Organic Consumers Association. Ronnie Cummins is international director of the Organic Consumers Association. |