There is a great paradox in modern agriculture. The agro-industrial sector is feeding people while harming society and starving the planet. In 1962, one farmer fed 25.8 persons; today, it is 155.[1] But according to the UN, global agrifood systems incur roughly $12 trillion annually in hidden social and environmental costs.[2] The Rockefeller Foundation found that in the US alone, the true costs of the food system are $3.2 trillion per year, which is three times what Americans actually pay for their food.[3]

This agricultural sociopathy—or ecopathy, as some have started to call it, since many of the biggest impacts are on nature—is the end result of nearly two centuries of optimising agriculture for efficiency, using a combination of mechanised labour, seed engineering, and chemical fertilizers. In the process, we have created a food system that delivers high productivity, but at the cost of the environment.

Let’s hone in on one part of the system: chemical fertilizers. In my Norfolk village in England, along the river, there’s an old bone mill, which used to crush bones (including from humans) for agricultural fertilizer. The plant-growth benefits of bonemeal and nitrogen were discovered by German chemist Justus von Liebig. In 1841, British industrialist John Bennet Lawes turned this knowledge into the world’s first artificial fertilizer factory at Rothamsted. 70 years later, BASF began commercial production of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, and the modern agricultural system was born.

What, you might ask, is sociopathic about chemical fertilizers that help food to grow and have arguably averted mass starvation?

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