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"Two new projects will call on the expertise of Imperial researchers, alongside other world-leading scientists in the US and the UK, to reduce the need for nitrogen-based fertilisers in agriculture.

This will make crop production cheaper and more sustainable, as well as reducing the environmental impact of arable farming.

Professors Bill Rutherford and Martin Buck together with their colleague from the Department of Life Sciences, Dr James Murray will search for a ‘lost’ nitrogen-fixing bacterium that was originally discovered in soil covering a charcoal fire in Germany. The aim is to scour the planet for the missing bug, and any related bacteria. Once found, they will test for a very special nitrogen-fixing enzyme that was originally reported to be able to work in the presence of oxygen, which is unlike all other known nitrogenase enzymes.

The second project will re-engineer the processes in bacteria that use solar energy to drive nitrogen fixation, so that it can ultimately be done inside plants and thus reduce the need for fertilisers."

Read more from Imperial College London

By Mark Bittman

"I’VE long wondered how producing a decent ingredient, one that you can buy in any supermarket, really happens. Take canned tomatoes, of which I probably use 100 pounds a year. It costs $2 to $3 a pound to buy hard, tasteless, “fresh” plum tomatoes, but only half that for almost two pounds of canned tomatoes that taste much better. How is that possible?

The answer lies in a process that is almost unimaginable in scope without seeing it firsthand. So, fearing the worst — because we all “know” that organic farming is “good” and industrial farming is “bad” — I headed to the Sacramento Valley in California to see a big tomato operation.

I began by touring Bruce Rominger’s farm in Winters. With his brother Rick and as many as 40 employees, Rominger farms around 6,000 acres of tomatoes, wheat, sunflowers, safflower, onions, alfalfa, sheep, rice and more. Unlike many Midwestern farm operations, which grow corn and soy exclusively, here are diversity, crop rotation, cover crops and, for the most part, real food — not crops destined for junk food, animal feed or biofuel. That’s a good start."

Read more from New York Times

By Ford West from The Hill's Congress Blog

"Two months have passed since the West, Texas fertilizer facility tragedy and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families that have been impacted. We are watching closely as the Chemical Safety Board investigation of the incident continues.  And we were eager to hear testimony yesteday in a hearing convened by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to prevent future threats.

Once a cause of the Texas tragedy is determined, the fertilizer industry will closely review the report and recommendations and work together to identify and apply any lessons learned. Our employees live and work in communities small and large across the country, and there is nothing more important than protecting our workers and their neighbors. The Chemical Safety Board’s investigation will likely take several months, but in the wake of this tragedy, we are acting now to take a number of concrete steps to strengthen our commitment to safety.  Those voluntary steps include reviewing what we are doing today and determining what can be enhanced; providing tools that explain and support compliance with federal and state regulations; and developing a Code of Practice that will include audits from independent experts.

Throughout the nation, fertilizer producers and retailers who handle ammonium nitrate are redoubling their safety efforts, reviewing the best ways to operate their facilities and making changes to make a difference.

For example, one facility decided to remove trash, grease guns and front-end loaders (which run on gasoline or diesel) from their building to minimize the presence of anything that could serve as an ignition source.

Fertilizer facilities are also meeting with local emergency responders in their communities to ensure they are aware of material stored on site and response procedures. Working hand in hand with local responders is an ongoing effort. A number of plants and fire departments already do joint training exercises.

Read more here

From USA Today

"An upside to climate change? The issue has been blamed for many problems, including more acidic oceans and rising pollen counts, but a study released Friday suggests a benefit: Arid regions are getting greener.

Satellite data since the early 1980s have shown a flourishing of foliage worldwide, and scientists have suspected this change may be due partly to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas emitted by the burning of fossil fuels..

Turns out, they were right because of CO2's "fertilization effect," according to a team of scientists led by Randall Donohue of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra, Australia."

Read more from here