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> Nitrogen comes from the air and to isn't an issue I thought it was a huge issue because natural nitrogen fixation was slow and unreliable, and that's why Hab

• bluGill 2y ago
  By not an issue I mean we have plenty and it is 'easy' to replace. Of course fixing is slow and so we need to add a lot but supplies won't run out.
  • schmidtleonard 2y ago
    You sure? I vaguely remember that the Green Revolution was roughly a 10x in yield. That sounds pretty significant. What's the yield difference using modern techniques?
    • Retric 2y ago
      Nitrogen fertilizer alone is a long way from 10x yield. The initial program got 3x yields over 20 years from a host of changes (pesticides, farm equipment, new hybrids etc), but at the core it was really a mix of education and loans not just some novel techniques. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution
• AngryData 2y ago
  Yes it is. And not only does fertilizer take significant amounts of power, it also uses hydrogen as a reagent which is sourced from fossil fuels. But despite that, it is still "cheap" because the alternative is using twice as much land, and smaller farmers who are most interested in regenerative farming don't have the capital to double their land usage which is a problem. They are getting beat out by larger scale corporate farms that aren't worried about the state of the land 30 years down the road.