For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen does one good deed for the environment: it helps build carbon in soil. At least, that’s what scientists have assumed for decades.
If that were true, it would count as a major environmental benefit of synthetic N use. At a time of climate chaos and ever-growing global greenhouse gas emissions, anything that helps vast swaths of farmland sponge up carbon would be a stabilizing force. Moreover, carbon-rich soils store nutrients and have the potential to remain fertile over time–a boon for future generations.
The case for synthetic N as a climate stabilizer goes like this. Dousing farm fields with synthetic nitrogen makes plants grow bigger and faster. As plants grow, they pull carbon dioxide from the air. Some of the plant is harvested as crop, but the rest–the residue–stays in the field and ultimately becomes soil. In this way, some of the carbon gobbled up by those N-enhanced plants stays in the ground and out of the atmosphere.
Synthetic nitrogen use creates a kind of treadmill effect. As organic matter dissipates, soil’s ability to store organic nitrogen declines. A large amount of nitrogen then leaches away, fouling ground water in the form of nitrates, and entering the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas with some 300 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. In turn, with its ability to store organic nitrogen compromised, only one thing can help heavily fertilized farmland keep cranking out monster yields: more additions of synthetic N.
The loss of organic matter has other ill effects. Injured soil becomes prone to compaction, which makes it vulnerable to runoff and erosion and limits the growth of stabilizing plant roots. Worse yet, soil has a harder time holding water, making it ever more reliant on irrigation. As water becomes scarcer, this consequence of widespread synthetic N use will become more and more challenging.
In short, the soil is bleeding.
Synthetic nitrogen’s effect on carbon sequestration swings from being an important ecological advantage to perhaps its gravest liability. Not only would nitrogen fertilizer be contributing to climate change in a way not previously taken into account, but it would also be undermining the long-term productivity of the soil.
Fertilizer application begins the destruction of soil biodiversity by diminishing the role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and amplifying the role of everything that feeds on nitrogen. These feeders then speed up the decomposition of organic matter and humus. As organic matter decreases, the physical structure of soil changes. With less pore space and less of their sponge-like qualities, soils are less efficient at storing water and air. More irrigation is needed. Water leeches through soils, draining away nutrients that no longer have an effective substrate on which to cling. With less available oxygen the growth of soil microbiology slows, and the intricate ecosystem of biological exchanges breaks down.
This decrease in soil fertility is a major concern in the current economic and environmental climate.
A balanced biological approach.
Historically, biological products have been overlooked by farmers for a number of reasons. Traditionally they are more expensive, take too long to break down and are challenging to apply. The reality is that now, this approach is more cost effective to farmers, the issue is getting growers to ‘see the light’.
Nature has an incredible ability, that has evolved over millennia, to sustain plant growth. Although biological products take longer to break down, they offer plants a more sustainable value of nutrients fed through a multipurpose biological system.
VitaSoil has harnessed these natural effects to provide the solution.
Synthetic fertilizer needs to go through a process of mineralization in order to become available for plant use. This process can only be done through valuable microbes in the soil, without them, farmers can apply as much fertilizer as they want, but no plant will have the capacity to feed. Microbes change the structure of nutrients in the soil and transport them through an intricate web of fungi to the roots of plants. This complex transport system is crucial in sustaining healthy plant growth. Synthetic Nitrogen, as we have discussed, destroys this system and compromises plant and soil health, leading to a swathe of issues down the line.
VitaSoil contains a balanced blend of carbon and microbes, scientifically developed to enhance the uptake of nutrients by plants by improving soil health. This process facilitates spin off benefits such as increased storage capacity for water, air and nutrients, as well as disease management. Healthy soils breed healthy plants that require less inputs to grow. Plants are more tolerant to neglect because they have a complex, live system at work all the time in the soil. The problem with synthetic inputs is that they require human intervention to make them work. With the current price of fertiliser, crops are now often under fertilized, and without sufficient biology in the soil, plants are starved of valuable nutrients, perpetuating further issues throughout the growing period.
Carbon and microbes work together to build soil. This soil then has the ability to fix nitrogen from the soil and the air and feed them, through fungal networks, to the roots of plants, all the time! As soil structure builds, nutrients are retained, resulting in less leaching and volatilisation. Plant diseases are suppressed as pathogens are overpopulated by soil-benevolent bacteria, a crucial benefit of healthy soils.
We need to look long term when it comes to sustainable agriculture and we can make the choice to go either way. We can continue to use ever increasing amounts of synthetic N to sustain plant growth in poor soils, resulting in further soil degradation, and more synthetic inputs required year on year to sustain yields. Or we can choose to implement a policy that utilises valuable and free systems that have evolved over millions of years to grow more nutritious plants, in soil that sequesters carbon and fixes the abundant Nitrogen that is freely available in our air and soils.
