The Fertilizer Industry Must Go Green
Everyone’s been talking about regenerative agriculture–the green farming movement that’s sweeping the nation. Regenerative agriculture seeks to reverse the damage inflicted on the earth from decades of unsustainable agricultural practices. Yet, one topic that is often neglected in this conversation is the fertilizer industry. Regenerative agriculture can help repair soil and increase biodiversity, but if the fertilizer industry remains the same, our planet will still suffer. That’s because the fertilizer industry has a very negative effect on the planet.
The Fertilizer Industry’s Negative Effect on the Planet
The fertilizer industry as a whole is responsible for 2.5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
Fertilizer production is responsible for 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with nitrogen fertilizers. The Haber Bosch process combines hydrogen and nitrogen to make ammonia. This ammonia is then converted to ammonium nitrate, the fertilizer used on your garden or on crops. This process requires immense energy and relies on natural gas. Nitrous oxide, the third leading greenhouse gas, often leaks from these fertilizer plants, warming the planet while eating at our ozone.
Another way that fertilizer contributes to greenhouse gas emissions is fertilizer application. Fertilizer is often applied in excess, as farmers erroneously believe that more fertilizer means bigger and better yields. Yet plants can only absorb so many nutrients. Whatever nitrogen is left within the soil after a plant has had its fill, soil microbes will consume. Soil microbes convert nitrogen in the soil into nitrous oxide and release it into the atmosphere, thus contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
But it’s not just greenhouse gas emissions for which the fertilizer industry is responsible.
How Fertilizer Affects the Planet–and Crops
Fertilizer is responsible for polluting air and water resources as well as increasing the salinity and acidity of soils. When fertilizer is not absorbed by plants or consumed by soil microbes, it is washed into rivers and streams via runoff. This results in toxic algae blooms, which deplete dissolved oxygen levels, effectively killing aquatic life.
Farmers should be concerned about the environmental effects of fertilizer use because it not only affects the earth, but it also affects crop yields. Salt-heavy fertilizers, like ammonium nitrate, are partly responsible for reducing soil quality. Fertilizers with high salt contents can make soil more acidic, which affects soil pH and plant health. Ammonium nitrate must undergo nitrification, a process in which soil bacteria convert ammonium to nitrate, releasing hydrogen and acidifying the soil. When plant roots absorb ammonium nitrate, they will also release hydrogen in an attempt to maintain charge balance across cell wall membranes.
Acidic soil possesses greater concentrations of manganese and aluminum, which impair root growth. Without healthy, longer roots, plants cannot absorb essential nutrients. Additionally, acidic soils deplete colonies of microbial bacteria, which are responsible for breaking down organic matter.
It’s obvious that the fertilizer industry needs a makeover–not only to help the planet, but also to help farmers. So what can we do? According to chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, limiting nitrous oxide emissions could be the first step toward reducing all greenhouse gas emissions. They state that “reducing nitrous oxide emissions can initially offset more than its fair share of greenhouse gas emissions overall, since N2O traps heat at a different wavelength than CO2 and clogs a “window” that allows Earth to cool off independent of CO2 levels.”
Luckily, xVirity has a solution to this problem.
xVital Reduces Nitrous Oxide Emissions
xVital is a revolutionary fertilizer made with only two ingredients–ionized water and nitrogen.
Unlike conventional fertilizers, xVital is not produced using the Haber Bosch process.
Our liquid fertilizer is developed using an electromagnetic field, which mimics the way lightning produces nitrate in the natural world. Because we use an electromagnetic field, our fertilizer is not attached to salts. In addition, because our fertilizer is already converted to nitrate, our fertilizer does not need to undergo nitrification. This means that xVital won’t make your soil acidic.
Both the production and application of conventional fertilizers results in greenhouse gas emissions. Not with xVital.
Our machine is ecofriendly. It does not release nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and does not rely on natural gas. In addition, it can be powered using solar panels for a 100% ecofriendly process. And unlike every other fertilizer on the market, xVital cannot be converted to nitrous oxide or washed into water resources. Once plants have absorbed the nitrogen they need from our fertilizer, it evaporates into the air as nitrogen, leaving nothing behind.
The rest of the agricultural industry is already turning to sustainable and regenerative methods. The fertilizer industry must to go green to meet the demands of farmers, consumers, and the planet. With xVital, this is possible.
Learn more here.
