[Terrapreta] Fossil-Fuel Based Fertilizers

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Jon,

Anhydrous ammonia-NH3, ammonium carbonate-(NH4)2CO3, ammonium bicarbonate-NH4HC03, ammonium nitrate-NH4NO3, and ammonium sulfate-(NH4)2SO4.  These compounds; gaseous or liquid ammonia and ammonium salts are NOT commonly found in nature, mostly because they are all water soluble.  Instead all of these fertilizers are synthesized from hydrogen gas-H2 (which is liberated from methane-CH4, a fossil fuel) and nitrogen gas-N2 from air (air is 78% nitrogen).  Haber-Bauch is the process for making ammonia gas;

    N2 + 3(H2) => 2(NH3)

Ammonia gas is the principle nitrate fertilizer used today.  Ammonium salts are the next most prevalent fertilizers used today.

They ALL come from fossil fuel (methane-CH4 or natural gas).  Production of ammonia liberates vast amounts of CO2.

You said it, "... FYI we never recommend or sell the damaging products such as anhydrous ammonia ...". So you know its toxic
Upon injection it immediately (on contact) kills all living soil microorganism within a 3-6" spherical radius of the injection site.
One breathful would do the same thing to a human.  All high nitrate fertilizers that are put into low SOM soils leach quickly down through the the "sterile" soil or run off over the ground.  This fertilizer never gets used by the crops.  Instead the nitrates descend into the water table or run to the streams rivers and ocean, acidifying all of them (nitrification).

Fertilizers of this type are too caustic to put onto crop seedlings (it would kill them), so instead they are applied after the harvest in the fall before the spring planting.  Snow is water.  Snow melts.  Run-off ensues.  You might apply a ton of fertilizer, but there in't a ton of nutrients left in the soil when it comes time to plant.

Since the fertilizers "burn" out the living organic matter in the soil more and more every time its applied, then there is less SOM there to hold whatever nutrients were ever applied.  The run-off washes even more away.  This requires more fertilizer to achieve the same "high-brix" as the previous year.  This is an incredibly vicious cycle because it encompasses the livelihood and many many farmers today.   It just continues to grow.

Nearly every available chemical fertilizer grows in use and sales every year!  More natural gas gets used, releasing more CO2, making more fertilizer, which will burn and kill more soil microbes, which will make that soil require even more fertilizer the next year.
It's like a government sponsored "methadone" program for farmers.  They have to get it, just got to have it, and they are duped into getting it to achieve the "high brix yield", by that sweet government subsidy.

But you knew all this before you asked me, right?  Thanks for the test.

Regards,

SKB




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jon C. Frank<mailto:jon.frank at aglabs.com> 
  To: Terrapreta<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 4:26 PM
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Fossil-Fuel Based Fertilizers


  Sean,

  Can you elaborate on what you mean by this with some specific examples?

  SKB>The use of industrially made, [fossil-fuel based fertilizers] is a 

  Thanks,

  Jon
    -----Original Message-----
    From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org<mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org> [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org]On Behalf Of Sean K. Barry
    Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 1:02 PM
    To: MMBTUPR at aol.com; lou gold
    Cc: Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
    Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] You Are What You Grow


    Hi Lou, Lewis,

    The over-use of industrial fertilizer is lethal to soil microorganisms and leads to the degradation of agricultural soils.  The soils become degraded because they have less soil organic matter in them.  The soil, without a healthy soil micro-flora, loses the ability to hold onto vital plant nutrients;  C HOPKINS CaFé Mgr.  The soils lose the ability to hold water and the water soluble plant nutrients.  The soils are left having no nutrients (without continued fertilizer applications) and no soil microorganisms to deliver the nutrients to the plants.  This is what soil "fertility" is (or was)!

    There are many other documented ill-effects from the use industrial fertilizer in soil, e.g., reduced Cation Exchange Capacity, undesirable changes in pH, stiffer "tilth", making in impossible to plow without larger equipment, the unceasing need for increases in continued "fertilizer" applications, and the nitrification of water tables, stream, rivers, and oceans.

    Sometimes, more fertilizer washes or leaches away, than is ever used by the plants.  Farmers pay more to pollute, than they do to improve their crops.  Specifically, liquid anhydrous ammonia (the most inexpensive and commonly used nitrogen fertilizer in the USA) is very toxic in soils.  It has very rapidly degraded the native fertility of large swaths of soils in this country already.

    The use of industrially made, fossil-fuel based fertilizers is a shameful gluttony that Industrial Agriculture has done for this country.
    It may be one of the worst things that we have ever done to the land.

    SKB
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