• CrimeDad
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    fedilink
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    31 year ago

    One way or another, I’m pretty sure that we need fertilizer. What is the source of GHG if the fertilizer is produced without natural gas or other fossil fuels?

    • @schroedingershat
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      21 year ago

      NO2, methane from byproduct/digestion, soil carbon release from land overuse. Downstream methane release due to nitrate pollution.

      The overwhelming majority of cropland is for “biofuel”, industrial chemicals and animal feed.

      Industrial scale regenerative agriculture has lower yields in the short term, but doesn’t emit NO2 and leave behind a dust bowl (requiring clearing a new forest).

      Eating crops directly rather than feeding cows is far more effective than changing fertilizer source. Eating organic crops uses a small fraction of the crop land that eating beef fed on intensively grown corn does.

      Biointensive methods have many times the yield as industrial agriculture but are very labour intensive – automating them would save a lot more emissions.

      Precision fermentation uses a tiny fraction of the land per unit of protein/nutrients.