Chemical fertilisers – failing not feeding

Did you know that today is Global Fertiliser Day? 

A day when we are told by the fertiliser industry that it ‘feeds the world’. The industry will portray itself as providing a public good, claiming it is indispensable to global food security.

But in reality, fertiliser production over the last 60 years has increased nearly nine-fold, at a huge environmental, social and economic cost for humanity. 

Fertiliser companies have not fed the world, but fed their own profits: causing soil, water and air pollution, and increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, including nitrous oxide – which is 273 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere. 

When fertiliser companies claim to ‘feed the world’, they rarely mention the nitrogen pollution left behind. The recent 2025 EAT Lancet Report says nitrogen pollution from agriculture exposes five billion people to unclean water, contaminated above safe levels defined by the World Health Organization – that’s more than half of humanity.

When it comes to food production, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has confirmed that global nitrogen use is also extremely inefficient: ‘Considering the whole food chain, only around 20 per cent of the (reactive) nitrogen added in farming ends up in human food. This implies that a worrying 80 per cent is wasted as pollution’. This leads UNEP to declare: ‘nitrogen pollution is one of the most important pollution issues facing humanity.’ 

From dead zones in oceans to toxic air near farms, the damage is real. A healthy food system cannot be built on poison – and an inefficient poison at that. 

Meanwhile, the fertiliser industry, dominated by a small number of powerful players, locks farmers and our food systems into a reliance on emission-intensive fertilisers (58% of fertilisers are made with fossil fuels), and strips farmers and communities of their power to grow and control their own food. 

It is time to acknowledge the fertiliser industry’s role in creating devastating levels of pollution, the climate emergency and the loss of biodiversity. 

Next time you see the fertiliser industry claiming to be a force for good, remember this: 

• Nitrogen fertiliser emissions account for around 2.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.  

• Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas emission from fossil fertiliser application, has a global warming potential 273 times greater than carbon dioxide, and is also the most significant stratospheric ozone-depleting substance.  

• Nitrogen use in agriculture has exceeded safe ecological limits across the world, particularly in Asia, Europe and North America, creating significant environmental risks. 

And let’s call companies’ claims to be doing good what they really are: greenwashing. 

Today is not a day for celebrating this toxic industry. There will be no food security as long as we are reliant on chemical fertilisers. 

Today is a day for imagining a different future for our food system.

We know what the solutions are. Agroecology and local food systems build healthy soil, support farmers and feed communities. If we champion farmers and frontline communities as stewards of the land, and reject the model of corporate greed and pollution, we can guarantee a healthy and safe planet for all. 

#FertilisersFailTheWorld