More Food, Low Pollution (Mo Fo Lo Po): A Grand Challenge for the 21st Century
- 1 March 2015
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Environmental Quality
- Vol. 44 (2), 305-311
- https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2015.02.0078
Abstract
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has been a double-edged sword, greatly improving human nutrition during the 20th century but also posing major human health and environmental challenges for the 21st century. In August 2013, about 160 agronomists, scientists, extension agents, crop advisors, economists, social scientists, farmers, representatives of regulatory agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and other agricultural experts gathered to discuss the vexing challenge of how to produce more food to nourish a growing population while minimizing pollution to the environment. This collection of 14 papers authored by conference participants provides a much needed analysis of the many technical, economic, and social impediments to improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crop and animal production systems. These papers demonstrate that the goals of producing more food with low pollution (Mo Fo Lo Po) will not be achieved by technological developments alone but will also require policies that recognize the economic and social factors affecting farmer decision-making. Take-home lessons from this extraordinary interdisciplinary effort include the need (i) to develop partnerships among private and public sectors to demonstrate the most current, economically feasible, best management NUE practices at local and regional scales; (ii) to improve continuing education to private sector retailers and crop advisers; (iii) to tie nutrient management to performance-based indicators on the farm and in the downwind and downstream environment; and (iv) to restore investments in research, education, extension, and human resources that are essential for developing the interdisciplinary knowledge and innovative skills needed to achieve agricultural sustainability goals.Keywords
Funding Information
- NSF Research Coordination Network (DEB-1049744)
- Soil Science Society of America
- American Geophysical Union
- The International Plant Nutrition Institute
- The Fertilizer Institute
- International Nitrogen Initiative
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- Enhanced-Efficiency Fertilizers in Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Urea Applied to SugarcaneJournal of Environmental Quality, 2015
- Future Riverine Nitrogen Export to Coastal Regions in the United States: Prospects for Improving Water QualityJournal of Environmental Quality, 2015
- Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Anhydrous Ammonia, Urea, and Polymer-Coated Urea in Illinois CornfieldsJournal of Environmental Quality, 2015
- The Efficacy of Winter Cover Crops to Stabilize Soil Inorganic Nitrogen after Fall-Applied Anhydrous AmmoniaJournal of Environmental Quality, 2015
- Navigating the Socio-Bio-Geo-Chemistry and Engineering of Nitrogen Management in Two Illinois Tile-Drained WatershedsJournal of Environmental Quality, 2015
- Farmers’ Use of Nutrient Management: Lessons from Watershed Case StudiesJournal of Environmental Quality, 2015
- Agriculture: sustainable crop and animal production to help mitigate nitrous oxide emissionsCurrent Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2014
- Climate change beliefs, concerns, and attitudes toward adaptation and mitigation among farmers in the Midwestern United StatesClimatic Change, 2013
- Nitrogen Cycles: Past, Present, and FutureBiogeochemistry, 2004
- The Nitrogen CascadeBioScience, 2003