The Third Relationship 1
even if it resulted in additional fertilizer runoff into streams and
waterways. So long as farmers were not held responsible, they could
simply ignore the consequences.
Caught up in the zeal to perform well, I fell back on the justification
that more food was why the modern food system existed—producing
higher yields benefited society, which always trumped adverse side
effects. Still, I was uneasy. And rightfully so.
As a gas, nitrogen is all around us. In fact, the element makes up
8 percent of Earth’s atmosphere, though not in a form plants can use.
In nature, transforming atmospheric nitrogen into a nutrient requires
a symbiotic relationship between certain plants and bacteria like rhi-
zobia. But as more synthetic fertilizer is used, the role of nature fades.
The outcome is relying more heavily on manufactured nitrogen fertilizer
made by drawing down finite reserves of natural gas.
Yet simply short-circuiting nature’s nitrogen cycle is not the end of
the story. A by-product of synthetic nitrogen is nitrous oxide, which is
three hundred times more damaging to an already warming planet than
carbon dioxide. Seventy-nine percent of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere
comes from agriculture.
Neither is the problem limited to global warming. As hydraulic
fracking sweeps across the country, the temporary boost in natural
gas supplies lowers its price. Incentives to build more nitrogen manu-
facturing plants increase, particularly in the Midwest. Thus, when a new
three-billion-dollar nitrogen plant was announced, the president of the
company sold its importance to the public by saying the added nitrogen
would “help farmers raise healthy, profitable crops to feed a growing
global population.” In other words, the fertilizer plant was necessary to
sustain a mindless drive to produce more food.
Not mentioned in the press release was how nitrogen applied in fields
adds to the runoff flowing into rivers, lakes, and oceans. Too much nitro-
gen or phosphorus (another fertilizer) spawns toxic algae blooms and
so-called dead zones, habitats where oxygen levels in water are so low
that marine life cannot be sustained. The largest dead zone, roughly the
size of New Jersey, is found where the Mississippi River flows into the
Gulf of Mexico, discharging its runoff from the upper Midwest.
Nitrogen in our water endangers both the landscape and the people
who live nearby. Elevated exposures can lead to blue baby syndrome, a