Who is credited with having made the lives of an estimated 2 billion people possible over the last century? The German chemists Fritz Haber (1868-1934) and Carl Bosch (1874-1940). How? They invented a process to produce ammonia on an industrial scale. Why is that important? Ammonia can be converted into fertilizer. And abundant fertilizer translates […]
What has changed the lives of a whole bunch of people? A wild shrub with yellow flowers that grows like a weed in humid tropical areas. The plant, called Tithonia diversifolia, can be used as a fertilizer to increase cereal or vegetable yields. Made into “green manure”, its effects are equivalent to those produced by […]
One way to eliminate artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides is to let ducks paddle in rice fields and waddle in vineyards. In what is now called integrated duck farming, specially raised ducks are put into rice paddies and fields to weed the areas and eat insects. At the same time, their manure becomes organic plant food. Farming […]
