Perpetual Innovation

Category: fertilizer

  • Composting Week & Food Waste

    Compost Week 2021

    Question: What Percentage of food goes to waste?

    This question is appropriate because this is International Composting Week, May 2-8, 2021, with a theme: Grow, Eat…COMPOST…Repeat.

    Some
    foods don’t make it out of the fields. Potatoes, corn, and tomatoes that are
    too small, or too ugly, may be left behind in the fields. In some cased, the
    farmers announce that the edible, but ugly, food is available for gleaning – all you have to do
    is drive over and gather it.

    In other cases, the food makes the long travel to
    restaurants and homes, but it is not consumed, so it goes to the municipal solid
    waste (MSW) system, i.e., to the landfill. Non-government organizations like EndHunger.org (Society of St. Andrew with a
    CharityNavigator score of 89.39) work to divert food from the waste stream to feed
    the poor and hungry people. There are several wonderful non-profit organizations — many have “misfit” or “ugly” in their names — and a growing number of for-profits that redirect food that would be totally wasted.

    About
    31% of food goes to waste after it has been packed and shipped to the end market.
    Overall, about 30%-40% worldwide goes to waste. In the US, food waste represents
    the largest amount of MSW by weight! Most of the wasted food is not composted
    or processed into energy (incinerated or natural gas recovery). Diverting food
    waste from the landfill is critical; food in landfills is derived of oxygen so
    it produces methane, a strong greenhouse gas.

    Rich Compost. 1 Month in Tumbler,

    Food waste (excluding meat,
    dairy, and such) can be composted. Yard waste is almost all compostable. Other
    things can be composted as well, including paper, newspaper, etc. Compost becomes
    a wonderful, rich soil (fertilizer) for your crops.

    There are several ways to
    compost. With a little open ground, you can create a composting mound. A compost
    tumbler might be a good approach for a homeowner.  Using earthworms to process waste into worm
    castings is sometimes an option (Vermicomposting or the
    raising of worms, Vermiculture).

    Two-Compartment Compost Tumbler.

    Also see:

    International Composting
    Week     is May 2-8, 2021, with a theme: Grow,
    Eat…COMPOST…Repeat    .

    World Soil Day
    is December 5. Mark your calendars every year to get the dirt on dirt.     International Union of
    Soil Sciences (IUSS)     is an international source.

    #Soil, #compost, #fertilizer, #food, #hunger, #sustainability, #Organic

  • IP for Corn that fertilizes itself with Nitrogen Fixing bacteria.

    From SustainZine: Corn that fertilizes itself with Nitrogen Fixing bacteria. How best to propagate the innovation & commercialize it. #SustainZine #RegenerativeFarming
    http://sustainzine.com/2018/08/corn-that-fertilizes-itself-with.html
    *** Blog Article ***
    This is a cool article in Science by Ed Young about a giant corn varietal in Sierra Mixe Mexico that grows in very poor soil, but actually fertilizes itself. There’s a bacteria that grows around the roots that absorbs nitrogen from the air and provides it to the corn. The team of researchers led by Alan Bennett from UC Davis referred to this a “Nitrogen Fixing” which works just like roots absorbing nitrogen from the soil.
    In this case, the soil is very poor quality, so the corn actually gathers nitrogen from the air (78% nitrogen for dry air).
    One major disadvantage of this corn is that it takes 8 months to mature.
    The benefits are many. In a linear world of farming, row crops are raise on big farms and the crop shipped off to marked (cities), which deplete the soil. So fertilizers are needed to replenish the soil to grow the next crop. The fertilizers (mainly phosphate and nitrogen) end up running off into the water ways and result in massive ecological damage such as algae blooms and red tide.
    Because fertilizers are expensive to buy, and expensive to apply, farmers continue to do a better job with fertilizers. (Other factors like urbanization, turf grass and golf course are taking over lead positions in pollution generation.)   However, linear systems in farming are non-sustainable, broken systems, compared to Regenerative Farming approaches that use non-til and corp rotations to restore the quality of the soil.
    To commercialize this “nitrogen fixing” cereal crop requires some improvements, new varietals (sexual reproduction) or genetically engineered (GMO crops). The intellectual Property (IP) of such crops will be important. Profits and the capitalist system at work, availability to the people and countries that need it, and the property rights protections that make IP work are just a few important ingredients in the dissemination of new technology — in this case, new crops.

  • Corn that fertilizes itself with Nitrogen Fixing bacteria.

    This is a cool article in Science by Ed Young about a giant corn varietal in Sierra Mixe Mexico that grows in very poor soil, but actually fertilizes itself. There’s a bacteria that grows around the roots that absorbs nitrogen from the air and provides it to the corn. The team of researchers led by Alan Bennett from UC Davis referred to this a “Nitrogen Fixing” which works just like roots absorbing nitrogen from the soil.
    In this case, the soil is very poor quality, so the corn actually gathers nitrogen from the air (78% nitrogen for dry air).
    One major disadvantage of this corn is that it takes 8 months to mature.
    The benefits are many. In a linear world of farming, row crops are raise on big farms and the crop shipped off to marked (cities), which deplete the soil. So fertilizers are needed to replenish the soil to grow the next crop. The fertilizers (mainly phosphate and nitrogen) end up running off into the water ways and result in massive ecological damage such as algae blooms and red tide.
    Because fertilizers are expensive to buy, and expensive to apply, farmers continue to do a better job with fertilizers. (Other factors like urbanization, turf grass and golf course are taking over lead positions in pollution generation.)   However, linear systems in farming are non-sustainable, broken systems, compared to Regenerative Farming approaches that use non-til and corp rotations to restore the quality of the soil.
    To commercialize this “nitrogen fixing” cereal crop requires some improvements, new varietals (sexual reproduction) or genetically engineered (GMO crops). The intellectual Property (IP) of such crops will be important. Profits and the capitalist system at work, availability to the people and countries that need it, and the property rights protections that make IP work are just a few important ingredients in the dissemination of new technology — in this case, new crops.

  • Phosphate World and Patent World. Sir John Bennet Lawes, Father of Fertilizer!

    Check out the post at our sister blog SustainZine.com: Phosphate World.

    This blog talks about the phosphate industry in Florida and the nice resort being built out of the rubble of past Phosphate mines over in the Tampa Bay area. That actually is pretty cool, but the point that phosphate fertilizer from mines is non-sustainable, and consequently is a broken business model. Peak Phosphate in the world could arrive by 2030.

    Innovation in preserving and recycling phosphate is critical. More sustainable uses of fertilizer is essential and a responsible way forward.

    But this blog looks at one of the key patents and technological breakthroughs that built the phosphate industry — and consequently, modern farming as we know it.

    Sir John Bennet Lawes is credited as the father of artificial fertilizer. He developed what is referred to as the superphospate fertilizer…. (Many politicians can make such a super fertilizer, only without the patented processes.)

    The inherited owner of the Rothamsted Manor in England, John Bennet Lawes, is credited with inventing the process for extracting useful phosphate from phosphate rock using sulfuric acid. In 1842 he obtained a patent on the process. (This must be only a UK patent since it seems hard to find in the USPTO.)

    Britannica had this to say about Sir John.
    “Lawes inherited his father’s estate, Rothamsted, in 1822. In 1842, after long experimentation with the effects of manures on potted plants and field crops on his estate, he patented a process for treating phosphate rock with sulfuric acid to produce superphosphate. That year he opened the first fertilizer factory, thus initiating the artificial fertilizer industry. The following year, the chemist J.H. (later Sir Henry) Gilbert joined him, and they began a collaboration lasting more than a half century; Lawes considered 1843 the year of the station’s foundation. Together, the pair studied the effects of different fertilizers on crops. They also researched animal nutrition, including the value of different fodders and the sources of animal fat.”

    There are several patents/applications within the last few years related to phosphate (fertilizer). Check out this one, first filed in China, related to extracting phosphate from low-grade rock using a microbial strain.

    And, of course, virtually all GMO seeds/plants are patented — Monsanto, Dupont, a university, etc. 

    Here’s a longer look at Sir John’s life history from Oxford’s DB.  The Rothamsted Research center is still active today, including GMO research.