THE NITROGEN FERTILIZER TREADMILLS Saul Levin Henna Mahmood
Fertilizer consumption since 1980 v v v v v v v v v v v Source: International Fertilizer Industry Association
Fertilizer consumption since 1980 Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium v v v v v v v v v v v Source: International Fertilizer Industry Association
Nitrogen consumption as a percentage of total fertilizer consumption 67% 66% 64% 60% 58% 28% Western/ India China Russia United Brazil Central States Europe Sources: International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) (2014)
Brazil uses over 80% “The fertilizer nutrient balance in the Brazilian agriculture is unsatisfacto- ry...soils are being progressively de- compound fertilizers pleted of nutrients. This represents a threat to long-term agricultural sustainability.” Sources: UN FAO
Global nitrogen use by crop Source: IFA 2011
1939 1960 1974 1980 1990s 2000 2008 2014 1910 1914 1946-1947 1970s 2004 1909 1830 - 1879 World War II Green Food Structural Economic Commodity Food Launch of Haber- World War I Launch of First Global Launch of Launch of Guano Bosh CF Industries Revolution Oil Crisis Crisis Adjustment liberalization Futures YARA Crisis Euro- IMC Global Imperialism Period and WTO Modernization Chem Invention and Nutrien (later known Agreement on Act Call for as Mosaic) Agriculture an African Green Rev- 1870 - 1914 olution Second Industrial Revolution First Food Regime Farming to agriculture Industrialization 1914-40s Centrality of colonialism Transition Surplus fertilizer from war 1940s-73 Second Food Regime State developmentalism 1973 - Capital-intensive industrialization Third Food Regime Overproduction Cold War End of strategic role of food aid Trade liberalization Increased power of agribusiness 2008 - 2012 Austerity Rising fjnancialization and monopolies
Percentage of the global market controlled by the top three producers 15% 48% 24% Nitrogen Potassium Phosphorus Sources: Yara Industry Handbook 2013
Synthetic State fertilizer subsidy Forced migration Spatial and Technological Fixes Energy Synthetic N fertilizer has a serious metabolic rift, and the Soil dependency degradation way in which this rift has been handled (namely through state support and consolidated agribusiness power) Inputs Metabolic has resulted in a growth treadmill of self-reinforcing and Labor outputs Rift need and investment beset with farmer dispossessions, dispossession techno-spatial fjxes and crisis tendencies. Ecological degradation Price-cost Urbanization is extended and concentrated, but most squeeze Synthetic importantly unstable and on a destructive path. Agri- fertilizer business
TREADMILL 1: LABOR DISPOSSESSION Fertilizer is reinforced by the dispossession of farmers through in- duced migration, “price-cost squeeze” and agribusiness control over agro-food production
Machinery Crop Factory Fertilizer Pesticide Chemicals The farmer has been changed from a primary producer into an Credit and subsidy Transportation State immediate converter of manufactured goods. Farming, carried out by millions of petty producers, is now completely dominated by the total system of agricultural production under the control of a few oligopolies, who sell farmers their inputs, and buy their outputs, and control (directly or indirectly) their conditions of production. In 1910, farmers gathered their own seeds from last year’s crop, raised the mules and horses that provided traction power, fed them on hay and grains produced on the farm, and fertilized the fjelds with the manure they produced. In 1986, Land Owner Labor Land farmers purchase their seed from Pioneer Hybrid Seed Co., their “mules” from John Deere, the “oats” for their “mules” from Exxon, their “manure” from American Cyanamid. R.C. Lewontin and J.P. Berlan, Technology, Research, and the Penetration of Capital: The Case of U.S. Agriculture. 1986.
TREADMILL 2: SPATIAL & TECHNOLOGICAL FIX Efgorts to resolve fertilizer (and capitalism’s) inner crisis tendancies through technological fjxes + geographical expansion and restructuring 5161 5161 5161 5161 5161 5161 5161 5161 5161 5161
TREADMILL 3: ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATION “By overcoming the antithesis between FAO assumes 60% town and country...the materials removed from the soil would be able to fmow back in full” -Karl Kautsky use effjciency for synthetic nitrogen Source: The Agrarian Question (1899)
Natural Gas “Unlike many of the industries capitalizing on the low price of natural gas, ammonia producers don’t use it primarily as a fuel source. They use it as an ingredient—a source of abundant, accessible hydrogen” Source: Scientifjc American
Natural Gas 2018 study reveals CH 4 emissions 5x higher than reported for natural gas Source: Environmental Defense Fund
Fertilizer Production (Fixation) Of total global energy use 1.2% is used for ammonia production Sources: Drawdown and Scientifjc American
Fertilizer Production (Fixation) Ammonia production accounts for 3-5% of global carbon emissions Sources: Drawdown and Scientifjc American
Nitrogen Fertilizer Application • Acidity • Carbon losses • Compaction • Erosion Source: Drawdown
Nitrogen Fertilizer Application Nitrous Oxide has 298x the warming potential of CO 2 Source: Drawdown
Runofg 500 algal blooms and oxygen-depleted oceanic dead zones worldwide Source: Drawdown
Runofg Sources of nitrogen delivered to the Gulf of Mexico Wastewater Treatment Plants Urban Areas 7% Ag inputs from 7% legume crops 9% Farm Fertilizer 41% Confined 10% Animal Manure 26% Atmospheric Depostion Sources: Drawdown and USGS
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