Fertilizers Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Fertilizers are chemical compounds that are added to the land to stimulate the growth of plants. Since soil is formed in many different ways around the world and is subject to many different types of erosion and leaching, then the optimal provision of additional nutrients will also vary. Most commonly, fertilizers will contain nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorus, which are the main plant nutrients, together with a number of trace elements that are also variously beneficial. Fertilizers are usually divided between organic and inorganic varieties. Historically, farmers have used manure from animals or other locally available substances.

The rise of industrialization during the modern age led to the creation of much more concentrated, nutritionally balanced, and efficient forms of fertilizers, and the understanding of which ones to use to promote the growth of specific types of plants. Fertilizers are now divided according to the ways in which they are taken up by plants (by roots or by leaves), how long they remain in the soil to release their nutrients, and the extent to which they are soluble. In general, agricultural fertilizers are usually comparatively long term in their release of important nutrients. Horticultural fertilizers tend to be much more short term in their intended impact and produce rapid growth in certain species for swift cultivation and sale. These types of fertilizers are more likely to enter into the plant and become, when the plant is a food item, part of the food chain. In common with insecticides and other chemicals, fertilizers can be partly responsible for regularization of size and shape of agricultural produce, since this makes the items more saleable.

This had the effect in some areas of removing the usefulness of local knowledge, often only slowly obtained over many generations, and leading to a sense of alienation. It also meant that commercial considerations became more important in determining what was to be grown than the natural configuration of the land and its soil. Although scientific studies suggest that the use of fertilizers does not have significant negative impacts if used appropriately, fertilizer is often, in fact, not administered appropriately, and farmers often do not have sufficient information or ability to apply it on a sustainable basis.

Although fertilizers are generally beneficial in that they promote plant growth and, therefore, help feed more people, they do have some negative impacts, especially when overused. These include the possibility of runoff, in which chemicals enter the water supply and contaminate it, as well as the eventual inability to sustain fertility of the land. The entry of fertilizers into waterways can lead to algal bloom, in which rapid growth of algae changes the water ecosystem and is harmful to fish and other marine creatures. Additionally, the success of some fertilizers in large-scale agricultural areas such as the U.S. midwest, as well as commercial incentives to provide ever-increasing growth of individual varieties, has increased the transformation of land cover and land use to monocropping-which has a tendency to lead to unsustainable and high-risk environmental circumstances. However, retail interests may lock farmers into long-term contracts, requiring them to continue to produce stipulated amounts of the individual species in order to profit.

Bibliography:

Philip J. Cafaro, Richard B. Primack and Robert L. Zimdahl, “The Fat of the Land: Linking American Food Overconsumption, Obesity, and Biodiversity Loss,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (V19, No.6, 2006);
James F. Power and Rajendra Prasad, Soil Fertility Management for Sustainable Agriculture (CRC, 1997);
Samuel L. Tisdale, Werner L. Nelson, James D. Beaton and John L. Haylin, Soil Fertility and Fertilizers, 5th ed. (Macmillan College Division, 1993).