manure

Europe has a shitty plan (sorry) to end the fertilizer crisis: manure

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He blockade of the Strait of Hormuz After the attacks by the US and Israel on Iran, it has had consequences that we have noticed from day one, such as the rise in fuel prices. There are others that threaten on the horizon and that are even more fearsome: according to United Nations dataApproximately a third of the world’s fertilizer trade and 20% of global LNG, an essential ingredient for manufacturing nitrogen fertilizers, pass through there. And fertilizer is providential so that food from the garden and farm reaches our table. Europe, which manufactures most of its fertilizers by burning imported natural gas, found itself overnight with skyrocketing prices and a very dark horizon. With prices 70% higher than in 2024the farmers don’t get the bills. For consumers, it seems clear that filling the shopping basket is going to be more expensive. So the European Commission has a contingency plan: the Fertilizer Action Plan. A literal shitty alternative. The central proposal from Brussels is to expand the recycling of slurry and agricultural waste to convert them into fertilizer following the program RENURE. The idea is not new: already in 2024 the Commission proposed to modify the Nitrates Directive to allow certain fertilizer materials derived from livestock manure to function as an alternative to chemical fertilizers under certain conditions. In fact, it is neither new nor sufficient. As MEP Herbert Dorfmann bluntly summarized: “manure can contribute, but it can never replace fertilizers based on urea and nitrogen.” From a technical point of view, this is an incontestable reality: synthetic fertilizers produced through the process of Haber-Bosch They have much higher available nitrogen densities than digestate or processed slurry. Why it is important. Because the Nitrogen fertilizers are the basis of modern industrial agriculture. Without them, having the supply and quantity of products that we have and at that price would be simply impossible. According to Mosaic Crop Nutrition data For agricultural production in the US, average corn yields would fall by 40% without nitrogen fertilizers. For wheat, long-term studies point to similar drops of 40%. In short, it is the pillar on which the ability to feed the planet’s population is supported. The fertilizer crisis once again puts Europe’s strategic dependence on the table, in this case on its agriculture, on fossil fuels (from third parties) and everything that its use entails: water, soil and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and public health risks. Every time there are geopolitical tensions in a gas-producing region, Europe trembles faced with the possibility of being cold or go hungry. Context. We mentioned being cold because not too long ago Europe looked into the abyss: the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022 brought with it an increase in the price of gas and fertilizers, which caused farmers on the old continent to reduce the use of fertilizer (and therefore, lower their yields). At that time the EU put a patch on it and now, four years later, seen in the same scenario and with the same structural problems. The current plan mentions necessary solutions such as improving nutrient management or promoting organic farming (environmental MEP Thomas Waitz also has said loud and clear that Europe is addicted to fertilizers derived from fossil fuels), but there are no concrete actions or obligations. We insist: RENURE is not something new, when the Commission proposed it a couple of years ago it already had the support of Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania, among others. Of course, its application was at a standstill due to regulatory issues. How do they want to do it?. The mechanism consists of modifying the EU Nitrates Directive to allow more digestate to be applied to agricultural fields, putting it on a par with mineral fertilizers. The digestate is what remains after fermenting the slurry in biogas plants: it contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, although in concentrations and forms of assimilation significantly lower than those of the synthetic fertilizer. In parallel, the plan mentions measures such as improving integrated nutrient management and promoting a transition towards organic agriculture, although without specific commitments or binding calendars. Yes, but. The big underlying problem is that Europe does not lack nitrogen, quite the opposite. In fact, the EU already has more nitrogen than their soils can safely absorb, which promotes the eutrophication and deterioration of rivers and lakes, in addition to ammonia emissions and contamination of drinking water. Adding more slurry to soils that are already saturated is neither a solution to shortages (and prices) nor is it good for the environment. A recent UNECE report estimates that Europe wastes between €20 billion and €60 billion in nitrogen resources each year, while the environmental and health costs of excess nitrogen pollution reach, according to the European Commission itselfbetween 70,000 and 320,000 million euros annually. The real solution is to get rid of fossil gas in the long term (and have plans similar to those with oil, with long contracts, diversification and strategic reserves) and bet on alternative technologies such as green ammonia. In this scenario, slurry can play a role in a circular economy, but it is certainly not an emergency patch. In Xataka | We are wasting a valuable resource: urine is helping solve the fertilizer crisis In Xataka | The Iran war has disrupted the global fertilizer trade. And that’s bad news for the shopping cart. Cover | Daniel Quiceno M and Markus Spiske

prohibit using manure in winter

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So essential for life as problematic. Spain is a very clear example of this duality: the drought because lack of waterthe rains for days in a row because they make the reservoirs overflow and data centers they want to join that reality. If we go to the United States, water is also a problem, no because there is more or lessbut because it is contaminated. Guilty? Agricultural runoff. And there are already states prohibiting farms from fertilizing in winter. What’s happening. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, has classified the industrial agriculture as the main source of deterioration in water quality in rivers and aquifers in the country. There are several factors, but excess nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements from fertilizers and manure are leaking into large rivers, rural aquifers and coastal areas such as the Gulf of America Gulf of Mexico. They estimate that each year 12 million tons of nitrogen and another four million tons of phosphorus are applied in the form of fertilizers. There is another waste: manure on livestock farms. The problem? These products infiltrate the earth, reaching groundwater. In winter, no fertilizer. This is something that occurs throughout the year, but in winter something very curious happens: in areas where it snows or freezes, these nutrients and sediments do not infiltrate into the groundwater (which is already bad), but when the snow melts, they drag the harmful products into the rivers and lakes. It is something known as surface runoffand what causes an excess of nitrogen in rivers and lakes is the proliferation of algae and aquatic plants, which consume the oxygen in the water, resulting in hypoxic zones in which fauna cannot live. There are two alarming cases: Gulf of Mexico: Remnants of fertilizers used in the Great Corn Belt of the Midwest flow down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, forming one of the largest dead zones on the planet. Midwest Rivers: In rainy years, nitrate concentrations have far exceeded what drinking water should have for dozens of days in a row. Consequences. But as we say, this also happens in aquifers, especially in private wells that are less monitored than those belonging to the public system. For example, a report from this year estimated that 90% of nitrate contamination in Wisconsin drinking water is due to that agricultural runoff. The study noted that 10% of the state’s private wells exceed the legal limit for nitrates. In intensively agricultural areas, the rate is 20 to 30%. And chronic exposure to these nitrates has been associated with cancer, pregnancy complications and even the “baby blue“, or childhood methemoglobinemia. That is to say: it is not just an environmental problem, it has escalated to something that affects public health. Reactive ban. And this has led some states to begin take cards in the matter. In direct response, states such as Michigan, Maryland, Ohio and Vermont have made various prohibitions on the use of fertilizers, manure and fertilizers in winter. Generally, they will begin in mid-December and will extend, depending on the state, until March 1 or April of next year. The restriction is unpopular among the agricultural sectors, but the problem is that it is a reactive measure and not a proactive one. That is to say: the damage has been done, what is sought is that it does not get worse. Change of agricultural model. At the federal level, however, the strategy is not direct regulation and prohibition, but rather incentivizing farmers to voluntarily adopt more sustainable practices. Departments like the USDA or NRCS are managing financial and technical assistance programs for farmers to optimize their crops, change practices or plant new crops of “coverage” that absorb excess nitrogen. In the end, it is complicated because the country has chosen one path, each state is facing the problem in a different way and agriculture/livestock are priority sectors in the United States for both own consumption and for export. And what does the EPA say? That fertilizers are applied in the right amount and at the correct time of year. And also that the animals graze away from streams. In Xataka | The US has a toxic well with tons of contaminated water. They are turning it into a gold mine for rare earths

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