Food from the air
21.08.2023 - 12:04
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
Mr. Liggett: Miss Mack… Could you tell us your answer to question number four? Why do nitrogen nodules cling to the roots of plants?
Jennifer Mack: Love?
Mr. Liggett: Jennifer, what do you know about nitrogen nodules that we don’t?
WarGames, 1983
Some plants have the ability to form a mutually-beneficial relationship with soil bacteria that can take nitrogen from the air and turn it into plant food – it’s not love, it’s called symbiosis. Gardeners are most familiar with it in the legumes – peas and beans – that grace our tables, and if all is well then nodules should be present on the roots of the plants when you pull them up at the end of the season. Those nodules are where the bacteria live. In return for the nitrogen fertilizer, the plants feed the bacteria some of the sugars they make from photosynthesis. In the absence of symbiosis plants are reliant on the amount of nitrogen in the soil, which can be a limiting factor in their growth.
Until Fritz Haber discovered how to synthesize ammonia (for which he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918), humans were unable to recreate this bacterial feat, and had to rely on animal manures, green manures and compost to fertilize plants and increase crop yields. The ability to produce synthetic fertilizer greatly increased our ability to feed ourselves, and today chemical fertilizer feeds about 3 billion people. However, it comes at a high price. Producing nitrogen fertilizer is an energy-intensive process, and nearly 80% never makes it into food. Instead, it causes considerable environmental problems. Fertilizer run-off makes its way into water courses, where it becomes a toxin, and into the atmosphere.
If we could encourage more plants to form symbiotic relationships and feed
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