From baguettes to beer, the world’s leading food and drinks makers are rushing to reduce their carbon footprint by tackling one of the hidden culprits of emissions in their value chains: fertilisers.
Ahead of disclosure rules for greenhouse emissions throughout their supply chains enacted next year, companies including PepsiCo, Heineken and Nestlé have turned to green fertiliser start-ups to help tackle emission levels.
Crop nutrients underpin production of half the world’s food but contribute significant CO₂ emissions at the same time. Fertilisers used for agricultural ingredients account for about 15 per cent of total emissions from beer supply chains and 35-40 per cent for bread, according to industry experts.
Nitrogen-based fertiliser and farm manure make up 5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, producing 2.6bn tonnes of CO₂ a year, more than global aviation and shipping combined, according to research published by the journal Nature Food.
Animal husbandry is a challenge in and of itself, introduces additional disease vectors, and has a carbon load of its own.
I have composted for a garden for 7 years now, and I have found that I still have to add nitrogen sources and a few other things like bone meal to get productive soil, even with pretty extensive composting. There are probably better composting methods, I’m not an expert, but compost is no silver bullet even at the small scale.
And the scale of commercial farming is mind-blowing, I really don’t know what kind of techniques can be used at scale.