“A Future Without Fertilizer Is A Wonderful World! And Yes, It’s Achievable Right Now, No Matter What World Experts Say!” – Frank A Hilario

Are you still swearing by chemical fertilizers? American scientists have been studying how to (1) avoid synthetic fertilizers, and (2) produce enough food for people, and (3) help resolve climate change.

I saw William Dar’s Facebook sharing of Friday, 15 April 2022 – Clinton Griffiths writing about “A Future Without Fertilizer?” (13 April 2022, agweb.com). Mr Griffiths enumerates the alternatives being studied in the US; “here are four ideas that someday could impact nitrogen needs” –

(1) mucus-like gel and bacteria (top image from agweb.com);
(2) ammonia-excreting bacteria;
(3) living mulch supplement with P&K;
(4) manure or manure-based fertilizer.

Mr Griffith says:

Pressure from costs, availability, regulations and environmentalists continue to squeeze synthetic fertilizer into a complicated future. Today farmers simply have limited alternatives. Tomorrow, the answer might be much different.

“Pressure from… environmentalists” – the reason being the greenhouse gases (GHGs) that chemical fertilizers cause to be generated when used. Agriculture guilty! Mr Griffiths says:

Currently, chemical fertilizer is the largest industry in global agribusiness and 1% of the world’s total energy is used to produce fertilizer. This process is quite wasteful, as plants only use a portion of the nitrates in the applied fertilizers and the rest often leaches into our groundwater, rivers, and streams, causing algal blooms that can suffocate aquatic life. This also leads to a situation in which the nitrogen not used by the crop can volatilize and become a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, which is ultimately responsible for about 5% of global warming.

“Chemical fertilizer is the largest industry in global agribusiness” – therefore, I say, as an agriculturist and warrior writer for village development, chemical fertilizer is the largest industry that produces GHGs!

Mr Griffiths quotes Purdue University agronomist Tony Vyn as saying:

I do not see a future without synthetic fertilizers. I do see a future using more biologicals and preferably while we’re also making much better use of manure and manure-based fertilizers.

Differently, I Frank A Hilario, an alumnus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, see a future without chemical fertilizers, zero. In fact, I have been proselytizing for organic agriculture in the last 57 years! Today I call my organic agriculture “Rotavator Organic WEALth” – for Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer Triggering Terrestrial Health, which is inexpensively produced by a rotavator. Except the acronym “WEALth” and its meaning, I have been writing about organic farming for many years now; see my 20 July 2011 essay, “Crop Science Philippines. How Organic-Minded Are We?” A Magazine Called Love, Blogspot.com). WEALth is my 2021 packaging. WEALth is not organic fertilizer applied; it is 100% organic layer created during rotavation.

A future without fertilizer is a desirable future! A glorious state of being for the whole world! Above, lower image – taken 21-06-2018 at the Amancio Farm in Cordon, Isabela; owner Noemi Liangco right, my wife Ampy left – shows a forest of trees and weeds lushly growing without fertilizers, excellent indications that without Man’s chemicals, Mother Nature Knows Best!@517