Ronan Cray
Oct 6, 2023

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By definition, removing any product from the land it was grown on leads to nutrient degradation. Unless you have a closed loop (you eat it, poop it, and return that nightsoil to the garden) you will need fertilizer. That's why most early agriculture grew on floodplains, using nutrients washed down from upriver.
There are carbon-free sources of fertilizer. Specifically, scientists brought to scale ammonia through electrolysis. There is no cure for phosphorus deplation, though. We can't sythesize it.
The reality is, without fossil fuels, feeding a world over 2 billion people while maintaining natural ecosystems remains impossible. That is the problem we ned to solve.

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Ronan Cray
Ronan Cray

Written by Ronan Cray

Ronan Cray moved away from New York City to live in New Zealand. Author of horror novels Red Sand and Dust Eaters, he finds non-fiction more terrifying.

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