Nitrogen fertiliser giants should be as infamous as Shell and BP for environmental devastation, according to new report exposing industry’s harms

Nitrogen fertiliser corporations must become as well-known as the oil and gas industry’s BP and Shell for making billions while devastating public health, biodiversity and climate, according to a new report exposing the villains of the nitrogen crisis released by charity Foodrise (formerly Feedback) today.

Synthetic nitrogen fertilisers – made by multi-nationals like Yara, CF Industries and Nutrien – are used to promote plant growth. But their overuse is seriously harming the planet: surplus nitrogen, most of which comes from agriculture, is currently more than double what the planet can sustain. Nitrogen fertilisers also release nitrous oxide – an ozone-depleting substance and potent greenhouse gas that is 300 times more powerful than CO₂ in trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period.

The new report – Exhausted Earth: How corporations broke the nitrogen cycle and how to fix it – investigates the harmful industry playbook used by nitrogen fertiliser corporations to profit from pollution. This includes spending millions of dollars lobbying governments to block regulation and insidious greenwashing tactics like funding research and sponsoring conferences which paint the industry favourably.

This follows the UK government announcing its partnership with Brazil to tackle nitrogen fertilisers’ “environmental impact and embrace their economic opportunities” at COP30.  The Belém Declaration on Fertilisers urges for more to be done to “enhance nutrient use efficiency and reduce emissions from fertiliser production as a key pathway to delivering climate goals, protecting and restoring nature, and ensuring food security for all in an equitable and just manner”.

Based on the landmark EAT-Lancet report, Foodrise calculates surplus nitrogen must be halved – meaning agricultural nitrogen inputs need to be cut by more than a third (42%) by 2050.

But – instead of shrinking – nitrogen fertiliser production has surged by a fifth (20%) since the first planetary boundary assessment was published in 2009, when scientists first warned that Earth’s nitrogen boundary had been breached. Food systems are the single largest driver of environmental degradation and the leading cause of planetary boundaries transgressions.

This shows the urgent need to over-turn the corporate control of our food system, as profit-driven corporations will always put making money for shareholders above people and planet.

The top three nitrogen fertiliser companies – Yara, CF Industries and Nutrien – accounted for over one-third (34.6%) of global nitrogen fertiliser production in 2022, raking in nearly $40 billion from their sales of nitrogen fertilisers.  While these companies have taglines like ‘Feeding the Future’ (Nutrien) or ‘responsibly feed[ing] the world’ (Yara), they have knowingly produced such vast amounts of surplus nitrogen as to transgress planetary boundaries, putting humanity beyond its safe operating space.

In addition, the nitrogen fertiliser lobby has also expanded its presence at the United Nations climate negotiations, with triple the number of delegates from major nitrogen producers attending COP30, compared with COP26.

Fossil fuels are used to make nitrogen fertilisers which are then used to grow feed for meat and dairy. These three interconnected industries are having a colossal impact on the environment and the corporations profiting from nitrogen pollution must be tackled decisively and quickly to build a food system with fewer animals being farmed, less nitrogen fertiliser required for animal feed and a reduced need for gas extraction for fertiliser manufacture. 

Strong government action and regulation is needed to protect humanity and the planet. In the new report, Foodrise is calling for reduction targets for nitrogen production in line with the EAT-Lancet recommendations.

Carina Millstone, Executive Director at Foodrise, said: “Nitrogen fertiliser corporations must become as infamous and publicly shamed as the fossil fuel giants for reaping billions in profits at the expense of public health, biodiversity and the climate. These companies are pumping millions into greenwashing nitrogen fertilisers and claiming to help feed the world – when in reality they fail it.

“Food system transformation will require significant political leadership to tackle the greatest barrier to change: corporate control. It’s time for our political leaders to rein in, require redress from and begin shrinking the nitrogen fertiliser industry before the window of opportunity closes. The nitrogen cycle must be de-corporatised if humanity is to return within its safe operating space, with a life-supporting nitrogen cycle, rather than a destructive nitrogen surplus.”

Million Belay, General Coordinator at Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), said: “Synthetic nitrogen fertilisers are devastating Africa’s soils and waters, accelerating climate breakdown, and trapping farmers in a cycle of dependence and debt. Meanwhile, powerful corporations are flooding the continent with fertilisers to maximise profit, no matter the human or ecological cost. It is time to break this toxic model. Governments and public banks must stop bankrolling harmful fertiliser expansion and invest instead in farmer-led agroecology that restores our lands, strengthens our sovereignty, and safeguards our future.”

Recommendations

To reverse the damage caused by the nitrogen fertiliser industry, Foodrise’s report demands the following changes:

• Drive the shift to the planetary health diet: The EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy, just and sustainable food systems is the most comprehensive and holistic scientific paper ever produced on the food system transformation. Political leaders must implement its recommendations without delay.

• Listen to farmers, not to agribusiness: As governments take action to enable the shift to the Planetary Health Diet and reduce the nitrogen surplus, it is imperative that they listen to farmers and not to corporate lobbyists.

• Redouble international cooperation for nitrogen reduction: Given the global consequences of the nitrogen surplus, which extend far beyond national borders, effective mechanisms for international cooperation to achieve nitrogen reduction must be developed.
• Make the nitrogen fertiliser corporations pay: Reducing nitrogen surplus requires reducing production of nitrogen fertilisers, in the context of an industry structured to grow and to maximise its profits. This will not happen unless political leaders show the necessary leadership to rein in, regulate and shrink the industry.