SubscribeWhat Does Fertilizer Have to do With Obesity?
Book author and medical writer Thomas Hager has written a fascinating essay about starvation and obesity.
He asks the question "who's making us fat?". A question that researchers have debated for many years.
With the huge growth in population over the last few decades - shouldn't we have run out of food by now? Instead we're mostly overweight - so what happened?
Hager blames it on air. Or, more precisely, the extraction of nitrogen out of the air that allows chemical fertilizers to be produced. Hager explains how two guys:
...figured out how to cheaply turn that nitrogen into tons of synthetic fertilizer, the kind you get in a bag down at the local garden store. They flooded the world with fertilizer. The results were a couple of Nobel Prizes and the creation of the world's largest chemical company
Thanks to the abundance of nitrogen fertilizers we now live in a sea of cheap grains and refined sugars. And we all got fat.
Unfortunately there has been an unfortunate environmental spin-off:
There is so much fixed nitrogen in the air now that rain in many places acts as a fertilizer, polluting rivers, throwing off the delicate nutrient balance in forests and tundra
So where to now? More and more farms are being converted into bio-fuel production. The long-term impact of this is unknown.
However, like every well-meaning invention - the law of unintended consequences always comes back to bite us. Those two guys who created nitrogen fertilizer had no idea that it could have led to an "obesity epidemic". Just like the folks who pioneered bio-fuels; in an attempt to avoid fossil fuel consumption - they've inadvertently led to policy that will result in reduced food supply, and more rain-forest destruction.
What a mad world we live in.
That is.... one theory.
I'll continue blaming my mom.
(J/K mom)
ReplyThat theory seems like a stretch to me. Besides, just because they produce it doesn't mean you have to eat it.
ReplyI believe one of the reasons for our weight problems is the abundance of cheap processed foods. Food has become cheap due to the 'green revolution' that began post-WWII.
Quite frankly I'd rather be fat than dying from starvation. So we can thank the scientists for that.
ReplyThis is one of the STUPIDEST things I've ever heard. Fertilizer does help with nitrogen fixation in plants, but there are so many other factors. The reason we're obese even though we've got less farmland is because of the availability of foods and the creation of processed foods. Corn is a highly subsidized crop and there has been a LOT of research into the creation of genetically modified corn that yields a lot more crop (ie, strains that yield 2 ears per stalk instead of one, corn that's resistant to rootworms and corn borers, etc.). The corn is used to make HFCS, cattle feed, poultry feed, corn starch, etc. Wheat is another subsidized crop that is cheap to grow and yields a lot of crop per acre. You can make about 90% of the processed crap on the supermarket shelves out of wheat and corn products and chemicals.
Is this guy forgetting that fertilizer is very key in producing fruits and veggies, which are key diet items to help FIGHT obesity?? Plus, fertilizers are a godsend to third world countries where the technology to produce enough food is a little behind the industrialized nations. Not to mention that there are lots of crops out there that fix nitrogen on their own (peas, soybeans, etc.) that farmers have been growing for centuries in crop rotation patterns to re-enrich the soil.
ReplyJunk science. I wonder if he knows Al Gore.
Reply"There is so much fixed nitrogen in the air now that rain in many places acts as a fertilizer, polluting rivers, throwing off the delicate nutrient balance in forests and tundra". I would like to see where he got this from, especially scientific sources. Nitrogen composes most of our atmosphere, naturally. However phosphates, nitrates and nitrites from the fertilizers do leach into ground water (as opposed to air) and can subsequently migrate to rivers and oceans causing algal blooms, which in turn can poison fish and other sea/river organisms. There are numerous studies done on this topic. Here's one: http://mrbdc.mnsu.edu/mnbasin/state/stateofriver_2005.html
ReplyYes the sugar is main cause of obesity, it has been known to all but the way you explained it and linked it with fertilizers is worth commenting.
Reply"...we now live in a sea of cheap grains..."
Well, some of us are.
Others are rioting because of high grain prices in their countries.
And those people in these developing nations are NOT suffering from obesity. They are just plain suffering.
Many want to blame the likes of Al Gore and other "green" pushers. But when is the last time that you bought a tank of ethanol? Me? Never.
I believe that cattle farming and the production of corn for the purpose of feeding those cattle is more to blame.
So much bad science around, it's difficult to discern what's good and reasonable. We need to educate ourselves and keep our curious nature alive!
...my 2 cents.
ReplySugar is the main cause of obesity. But we are so used to sugar in the form of coffee,tea,soft drink etc.
Reply