This event was hosted by TABLE on 16 October 2023 and took the format of a panel discussion with:Dr Tara Garnett (director of TABLE);Professor Wim de Vries (Wageningen University & Research);Pauline Chivenge (International Rice Research Institute);Rasmus Einarsson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences).

The number of people in the world that could theoretically be fed depends on how much food can be produced, as well as factors such as dietary composition (particularly the balance between crop and animal products) and what agricultural land is used for which purpose (cropping versus grazing). The potential for agricultural production is itself critically dependent on nitrogen availability. Nitrogen can be delivered in the form of mineral or organic fertiliser.  While nitrogen is an essential input into agricultural production, nitrogen pollution is a major problem, with the degree of pollution caused a function of the quantity of nitrogen produced as well as the efficiency of its uptake and use by crops ( these will be influenced by climatic and other biophysical factors) - the Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE).

This report from the UK charity the Soil Association examines how disruption to the nitrogen cycle can damage the climate, biodiversity and human health. It proposes replacing widespread use of synthetic fertilisers with agroecological use of nitrogen-fixing legumes and manure from grass-fed livestock. 

This paper analyses thousands of nitrogen policies from 186 countries. It finds that environmental nitrogen policies are not well integrated across various domains (such as water and air pollution) and that many agricultural policies encourage the use of nitrogen fertilisers, prioritising food production over environmental protection.

This opinion paper calls for organisers of scientific meetings to adhere to 12 principles to minimise the environmental impacts of the meetings, as outlined in the Cercedilla Manifesto. The principles cover food, transport and careful planning of remote meetings so that they are effective for all participants. The paper emphasises that nitrogen pollution is an often-neglected aspect of food sustainability.

This article from Civil Eats examines how the rise of both plant-based diets and regenerative agriculture practices have encouraged more farmers in the United States to grow pulses such as lentils, peas and chickpeas. As pulses become more popular with US consumers, a smaller fraction of the US pulse harvest is exported to other countries.

This paper finds that over ten billion people could be fed within the constraints of four planetary boundaries (biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, and nitrogen flows), if the food system undergoes a “technological-cultural U-turn”.

This paper from the UK’s Institute of Development Studies analyses how the project N2Africa: Putting nitrogen fixation to work for smallholder farmers in Africa has contributed to development outcomes in Ghana and Ethiopia.