Climate Change Concerns Pt 3: No such thing as a free meal

As a conscientious observer I think it’s true to say most people know that many technological advances have helped food production keep pace with Earth’s growing population but overall results would play to mixed reviews.

There has never been more food choices at my local Valu-Mart but many choices come with a cost.

As mentioned yesterday, the development of cheap fertilizer, i.e., ammonium nitrate, helped boost crop production but environmental degradation followed. In many quarters, the degradation is as visible as the nose on our face.

The reason: Fertilizer is not a natural, clean product from start to finish. Quite the opposite.

To refresh my understanding about the development and environmental cost attached to cheap fertilizer (it’s cheap only if you have the mind of an economist) I turned to The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (please visit Read This... in side margin).


["High yields are linked to high fertilizer use": photos GAH]

“The great turning point in the modern history of corn, which in turn marks a key turning point in the industrialization of our food, can be dated with some precision to the day in 1947 when the huge munitions plant at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, switched over to making chemical fertilizer. After the war the government had found itself with a tremendous supply of ammonium nitrate (an excellent source of nitrogen for plants), the principal ingredient in the making of explosives... The chemical fertilizer industry (along with that of pesticides, which are based on poison gases developed for the war) is the product of the government’s effort to convert its war machine to peacetime purposes.” (pg. 41)

Since 1947, have changes occurred in agricultural production?

Certainly. Some we might possibly view as positive.

E.g., “Though hybrids (re corn) were introduced in the thirties, it wasn’t until they made the acquaintance of chemical fertilizers in the 1950s that corn yields exploded.” (pg. 42)

‘Exploded’ is an interesting way to describe what happened, isn’t it?

Though more food could be produced our agricultural processes shifted from natural to scientific supports.


["High fertilizer use is linked to high fossil fuel use"]

“When humankind acquired the power to fix nitrogen (the process by which chemical companies turn naturally occurring nitrogen into a product sold by the bag) the basis of soil fertility shifted from a total reliance of the sun to a new reliance on fossil fuel. (The) process works by combining nitrogen and hydrogen gases under immense heat and pressure in the presence of a catalyst.”

“The heat and pressure are supplied by prodigious amounts of electricity, and the hydrogen is supplied by oil, coal, or, most commonly today, natural gas - fossil fuels.” (pg. 44)

The link between many food choices, fertilizer and fossil fuel is visible to all, as is the link between fossil fuel dependence and environmental degradation.

And as long as ‘the economy’ takes precedence over ‘the environment’ there will be no such thing as a free lunch.

Please click here to read Part 4.

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More meaty quotes from The Omnivore’s Dilemma

I generally do my best reading while riding a recumbent bicycle in the basement.

My concentration is deep, pages fly by, I underline with jiggly lines many world famous quotes (well, they will be once everyone reads the same book and sees things the way I do), calories fall to the floor, beads of sweat form on my brow.

Not all of the beads are produced by the much-needed exercise.

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan writes:

“When humankind acquired the power to fix nitrogen (make fertilizer from mountains of ammonium nitrate left over from WWll munition production in the U.S.), the basis of soil fertility shifted from a total reliance on the energy of the sun to a new reliance on fossil fuel.” (pg. 44)

Of course, being self-reliant is commendable in many ways but we supplant the sun at great personal and environmental cost.

The personal: Mountains of fertilizer turn into mountains of corn which, along with a mountain of antibiotics and truckloads of fat, feed millions of cows that become the meal of the day (in North America we eat a fifth of our meals in cars and feed a third of our children at a fast-food outlet every day) for an obese population.


The environmental: “The ultimate fate of the nitrates spread on cornfields (e.g. in Iowa) is to flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, where their deadly fertility poisons the marine ecosystem... creating a dead zone as big as the state of new Jersey”. (pg. 47)

I’ve finished only 20 per cent of the book so I’ve many miles to pedal before more important lessons have been learned.

But I can almost guarantee I’ll be less beefy by the time I reach the last page.