Giving Compass' Take:

• This article from The Conversation examines how regulating nitrogen use on farms is not necessarily the best approach to decreasing pollution, but managing the fertilizer industry could be. 

• Those in the agriculture sector may want to take a close look at mass fertilizer production. In what ways can we protect farmers' livelihoods, while still making good decisions for our environment?

• Here's how governments can work together to help fight pollution from fertilizers.

Nitrogen pollution is produced by a number of interlinked compounds, from ammonia to nitrous oxide. While they have both natural and human sources, the latter increased dramatically over the past century as farmers scaled up food production in response to population growth. Once these chemicals are released into the air and water, they contribute to problems that include climate change and “dead zones” in rivers, lakes and coastal areas.

Reducing nitrogen pollution around the globe is an urgent environmental goal, but extremely challenging — in part because the main human source is agriculture. Environmental policies are especially hard to enforce on farms because there are many of them over broad areas, which makes it difficult to confirm that farmers are complying. And powerful agricultural interest groups often push back against them.

Even for farmers who want to do a better job, managing nitrogen use is challenging. Nitrogen is a key nutrient that helps plants and livestock grow, but it escapes readily into the environment.

Read the full article on nitrogen pollution by David Kanter at The Conversation.