Fertilizer Crisis: An Argument for Organic Farming

The Union of Concerned Sciences recently published the piece “Farmers Face a Fertilizer Crisis at Spring Planting Time,” which states: “The ongoing blockade of ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz has affected the passage of oil, finished fertilizer products, and the raw materials used to synthesize fertilizer. Exacerbated by limited supply, the price of fertilizer has steadily increased since the beginning of the war. … Farmers actually apply far more fertilizer than required.”

The farm bill is currently being debated in Congress.

ALEXIS BADEN-MAYER, alexis@organicconsumers.org
Baden-Mayer is research director at the Organic Consumers Association. Her recent pieces include “House Votes on Whether to Stand with Pesticide Victims or the Company that Poisoned Them, Monsanto (Bayer).“

She said today: “It’s not true that crops can’t be grown without synthetic, fossil fuel derived fertilizers as some claim. Organic farms don’t use these, but it is true that U.S. industrial farms rely on them.