WHy Nitrogen Footprint Matters
The term “carbon footprint,” is used to indicate greenhouse gas emissions produced using fossil fuels. Unfortunately, there is no similar measure for quantifying the impact of nitrogen on the environment, but nitrogen deserves its own ignominious “footprint.”
Nitrogen’s impact is serious!
- Toxic algal blooms
- Suffocated fish
- Tainted drinking water supplies
- Crashing aquatic ecosystems
- All direct consequences of excessive use of nitrogen in agriculture
By quantifying the impact that the release of nitrogen has on the environment, we can draw consumers’ attention to this crisis, change their consumption patterns, and motivate farmers to generate a smaller nitrogen footprint.
FOOD SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Nitrogen is used to grow much of the food found in the supermarket. While it is convenient to grab your favorite big and juicy berries, most people don’t think of the impact their food purchases have on the environment. The use of nitrogen-based fertilizers took off at the end of the second agricultural revolution, increasing crop yields in an explosive manner. While we have benefited from this surge in food production, it has also caused significant adverse effects. Since there is so much nitrogen used in farming, the soil cannot absorb it all, leaving the excess to find its way into rivers, streams, and eventually, lakes and oceans.
THE PROBLEM
The nitrogen and other nutrients contained in the agricultural runoff fuel massive algal blooms. When these blooms become prevalent, they turn the water opaque, blocking sunlight from reaching the plants growing at the bottom of lakes and oceans, rapidly killing off this essential oxygen source. Eventually, these algal blooms die, sink, and are consumed by bacteria, a process called hypoxia, exhausting much of the remaining oxygen in the water, producing “dead zones.” The resulting dead zones exist in waters all over, specifically in the Great Lakes and coastal ocean environments such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, but one way to solve the “dead zone” crisis is to reduce the amount of nitrogen that escapes from farming.
HOW CAN WE GAIN MOMENTUM IN SOCIETY?
The concept of the “carbon footprint” increases consumers’ awareness of the impact they make with their buying choices.
- Big red berries = many tons of nitrogen runoff
- Make better choices = higher demand for products with a smaller nitrogen footprint
- Encourage farmers to reduce their nitrogen runoff = more income
Just as the concept of the carbon footprint might influence us to buy an electric car rather than a gas guzzler, the nitrogen footprint could impact food consumption decisions.
We’ve seen benefits from informing consumers about the carbon emissions resulting from their consumption choices—why not use the nitrogen footprint to encourage a similar public response?
