Organic vs Synthetic Fertilizers
By: John Strickland
Synthetic Fertilizers: What are We Doing to Mother Nature?
Since the mid 1940's the world has had a fascination with synthetic fertilizers and their ability to grow fast, cheap fruits and vegetables and make our lawns look green over night (of course we've also had a fascination with someone throwing a hamburger out a window at us as we drive by in our cars). "But wait a minute", you say, "I thought we'd been using chemical fertilizers forever?" Not so my fellow gardeners. It wasn't until the end of World War II, and the major bomb making companies found themselves with a surplus of nitrates. You know, that "ammonium nitrate" stuff used in bomb-making - that was also used by the thugs who brought down the building in Oklahoma City. For those of you who may not know, ammonium nitrate, or nitrogen, is the first number you see in the 3 numbers on a bag of lawn or garden fertilizer, such as 10-10-10. So this surplus of nitrates back in the 1940's is why synthetics were introduced world wide under the pretext that we have to "grow plants quicker to keep up with booming populations." "If that's the case", you reply, "then how did we ever get along without them"? Well my friends, until then, and from the beginning of human agriculture, we fertilized with the help of nature and much less expensive if not free organics.
Here's a fun fact: Since the 1950's the U.S.D.A. has been monitoring these synthetic fertilizers to see if they had any adverse effects on nutritional value. After all, if this was the miracle breakthrough that was going to feed the worlds booming population, perhaps it was worth a closer look. Interestingly enough, their studies have shown a marked decrease in the nutrient content in 43 crops they have tracked. Average analysis states that Iron declined by 15%, Calcium by 16%, Vitamin C by 20%, and Riboflavin by 38%.This is huge my friends. According to Brian Halweil, a researcher for Worldwatch, today you have to eat three apples to get the same nutritional value as one 1940's apple. That's when you start thinking about the breakdown in immune systems and the obesity problems that we face today as a people. How do you like them apples?
Why do industrial chemical based fertilizers take our crops through this decline in nutritional quality? Like everything else in life, if you want a "quick fix", you're going to have to sacrifice something. High levels of nitrogen and low levels of trace minerals found in chemical fertilizers force fast growth. This gives the plants less time and opportunity to accumulate nutrients other than NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphous-Potassium). This lack in ability to accumulate nutrients also results in weak watery cell growth, which, although pretty on the outside, makes it a susceptible target for insects and disease.
Another explanation is this easy access to major nutrients means that these crops develop shallower and smaller root systems than do organically grown plants. Organically prepared soil and the use of organic fertilizers supply plants with the beneficial bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that are the very basis for plant health. Every teaspoon of healthy soil is teaming with millions of these helpful critters. Chemical fertilizers contain salts and various other goodies that virtually kill off these essentials. The over-use of industrial fertilizers and herbicides have sterilized the earth in which we try so valiantly to grow our vegetables, lawns and tress and shrubs. Too, synthetics are highly soluble, allowing them to cruise through the soil profile. As this happens plants grab what they can as they go by, and then we have to feed them again when they run out of the good stuff. We are becoming plant enablers. We have made our plants NPK junkies. Eventually these unnatural chemicals find their way into our lakes, streams, and water table.
This brings me to another dirty secret: The Dead Zone. The "dead zone" is one of the worlds largest polluted areas...and most Americans have never heard about it. Chemical fertilizer manufacturers sure aren't advertising this one. There's something "fishy" here. The "dead zone" is a perennial occurring pollution site in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast that has reached the size of the state of New Jersey. Last year the "dead zone" expanded to over 8000 square miles! The origins of the dead zone lie hundreds of miles up the Mississippi River, where fertilizer runoff from our farmlands and towns funnel billions of pounds of excess nutrients into the river, and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. The nutrients, mostly nitrogen and phosphorus, combine with sunlight and summer heat to fuel explosive algae blooms, known as "red tide", that choke off the oxygen supply vital for marine life to live. But nothing can live in this zone. This pollution essentially puts commercial and private fishing out of business from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Texas border.
The Dead Zone in the Gulf is not unique - all over the world, freshwater and marine systems are experiencing unparalleled chemical and nutrient pollution that leaves a legacy of decay for future generations.
Well I guess I've managed to scare half of you death with my first installment on this fabulous website, but folks have to know the truth before they can embrace a solution. I promise to get all warm and fuzzy in my next article:)
John Strickland
Other Articles by John Strickland
SEE: An Introduction to Organic Gardening