A History of Synthetic Fertilizers: From Europe to Guatemala
The day is April 19, 2013 in West, Texas. As newspapers flood the streets and reports flood airwaves saying the death toll has raised to fourteen, sixty town residents are still unaccounted for. Two days ago an explosion at the West Fertilizer Company production plant caused what would eventually total to fifteen deaths, over 160 injured residents, and the damage and destruction of over 150 buildings and 50 homes. Ten of these deaths were volunteers who were the first to arrive on the scene of a fire at the plant who were soon consumed by the explosion that preceded the initial flames. Federal law requires that the Department of Homeland Security be notified if anyone has over one ton of ammonium nitrate, yet what began as a fire lead to a devastating explosion after the ignition of a reported 540,000 pounds (270 tons) of ammonium nitrate and 110,000 pounds (55 tons) of anhydrous ammonia on site at the plant. Both of these chemical compounds have been essential components of synthetic fertilizer since the beginning of its commercial production roughly one hundred years before this disaster occurred. The West Fertilizer Company paid off $5,250 in fines to the United States Pipeline and Hazardous Material Administration the previous year for unsafe business practices, but was still allowed to stay in production after regulators observed farmers driving away with gallons of fertilizer held in unmarked tanks in the back of their trucks from the site. There are around 12,000 chemical facilities, water treatment plants and oil refineries near communities like West, Texas in the United States. An additional 400 high-risk chemical plants operating in the United States...
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...alance of chemicals in the soil, organic fertilizers like compost replenish the soil and slowly builds up the organic content of the soil to reverse trends of soil depletion while providing a healthier diet than commercially produced foods covered in ammonium nitrate.10 The traditional process of farming has faced severe alterations in the past century, but this does not mean that modern science and ancient knowledge can not collaborate to produce safer and more efficient alternatives in the future.
Comments: You have a good opening but could use a clearer thesis statement. Try to put a little more information into your citations. Why is it important to you that ammonium nitrate is used in both fertilizer and bombs? Make sure that each of your paragraphs covers only one theme. You have a very interesting case study of the Maya and a really nice paper overall.
Exxon/Mobil, one of the nation’s leading oil producers, has its main refinery located in Beaumont, Texas. Each year, the residents of Beaumont/Port Arthur have to contend with the 39,000 pounds of pollution spewed each year by the Exxon refinery. Exxon’s emissions are 385% above the state refinery average. In 1999, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee (TNRCC) allowed the plant to increase their emissions, without allowing the public to have a say in the matter. Interestingly, 95% of the people living near the plant are of African American descent and are in the poverty range. Some believe that this, along with the lack of education in the area, allows Exxon to get away with such high emissions. Residents in nearby neighborhoods have been complaining of headaches, nausea, eye, and throat irritation for years. Since 1997, Mobil has repeatedly violated health standards in its emissions of two key air pollutants: sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, These “rotten egg” smells are so strong, one can smell it through a car driving past the refinery. After numerous complaints and one record of a refinery worker becoming unconscious because of the fumes, the EPA awarded Exxon with a $100,000 environmental justice grant in October of 1998. Hopefully, Exxon has put the money to good use and cleaned up their emissions.
Organic fertilisers and natural pest control methods minimise the impact of viticulture on the environment. In recent years there has been a considerable movement by some growers towards an organic approach. This is as a result of consumer driven trends and pressure to minimise the environmental impact of viticulture.
The United States was built on an agrarian system. The ability to grow crops helped create an economic backbone for the county. The use of fertilizer became a norm in farming and agriculture and was not considered a potentially harmful substance. Modern science in combination with the terrorist mind has looked at fertilizer as a weapon, particularly those containing ammonium nitrate. The Ammonium Nitrate Security Program shows how far the United States has progressed by regressing when the issue of terrorism is presented into the conversation. Terrorists are using readily available tools which can be purchased legally without knowledge of law enforcement personnel.
“On March 23, 2005, at 1:20 pm, the BP Texas City Refinery suffered one of the worst industrial disasters in recent U.S. history. Explosions and fires killed 15 people and injured another 180, alarmed the community, and resulted in financial losses exceeding $1.5 billion.” (U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 2007) There are many small and big decisions and oversights that led to the incident. Underneath all the specific actions or inaction is a blatant disregard for addressing safety violations and procedures that had been pointed out to BP even years before this event. The use of outdated equipment and budget cuts also contributed to the circumstances that allowed this accident to happen.
On January 9th, 2014, it was reported that a chemical spill has occurred from a storage tank owned by Freedom Industries. The spill occurred on the banks of Elk River in West Virginia, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without tap water. The company first reported that 7500 gallons of the chemicals had spilled into the river through a one-inch whole but had found that two weeks later, there was an estimated 10000 gallons of the toxic chemical in the river. The chemicals released include 4-methylcyclohexane (MCHM) and PPH. Methylcyclohexane is a chemical that is used in coal to reduce the amount of ash it produces(Field & Catherine, 2014). The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection are still calculating the exact amount of how much of the chemicals were spilled.
My family already has a composting pile in the yard and I never really noticed its value. I always thought of it as a pile of trash and would be reluctant to recycle leftovers when my parents told me to. It would have been so much easier to just throw everything away in the trashcan. In “Waste Not Want Not” Bill McKibben states that, “we toss 14 percent of the food we buy at the store” (304). That is a lot of food that can be put to better use instead of being wasted. Old food scraps will eventually turn into rich soil that can be used to grow an organic garden. The produce that I buy in the grocery store is not as healthy as I think it is because most of it is filled with chemicals that can be harmful to humans. There is a “displacement of nearly the entire farming population and the replacement of their labor and good farming practices by machines and toxic chemicals” (Berry 401). Using compost to plant my own food I do not have to live in fear about what I am feeding to my family. Composting is not only a good source to keep food out of landfills but it promotes a healthy and natural lifestyle.
It was clear that the governments in America would not issue a permit to Union Carbide plant under such circumstances, which lacked severe environmental standards and permitted slum dwellers to live near the plant and so on. Such actions were the ones that led to more deaths. Before the major gas leakage from the MCI unit on December 3, 1984, some people were killed because of phosgene gas leakage. However, no one took it seriously, despite the media report. One of the reasons that people ignore this was because people didnt know the potential danger of the chemical plant.
...at over planting can do to the land, the majority of the United States just moved on and continued to treat the land just as poorly as before. John Pursell views chemical fertilizer as a thing that turns soil into “chemical wasteland” and mentions that today’s soil is often not good enough to resist heavy rainfalls.
Organic foods are those grown without the use of growth hormones, antibiotics, synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizers. Genetically modifying crops is also not preformed in organic farming. Soil fertility can be maintained using crop rotation, cultivation practices, and cover crops. Natural fertilizers and pesticides are still considered to be included in organic farming (Winter & Davis, 2006). Products that are controlled with cultivation conditions rather than chemical-synthetic pesticides include organic products (Woese, Lange, Boess & Werner Bogl, 1999). The use of synthetic pesticides and materials falls under conventional farming. If the materials are on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, it can, however, be considered organic. A process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurring sources is considered a synthetic material (Winter & Davis, 2006).
Closure of a major transportation hub as a result of the release of the hazardous material
Many consumers and farmers have discovered that living in an industrialized culture where the focus has become faster, bigger, and cheaper is not the best way to produce our food. Obsessed with productivity, the agriculture industry is reaping the negative consequences of creating an unsustainable environment for food production. Time and time again, the media captures stories regarding deadly bacterial contamination and dangerous pesticide contamination causing illness and death in our communities. The environment is also damaged and contaminated. This devastating trend, due to irresponsible farming practices as a result of the industrialization of the food industry, has become all too common. Returning to organic farming, which our grandparents referred to as farming, and reclaiming our food is not only our choice, it is our right.
A study of 362 datasets found that organic agriculture produces 80% of conventional yield with 21% standard deviation (Tomek et al. 2012). Second, organic farming requires less energy input which equates to less money spend from the farmers in addition to lowering carbon emissions. A study by the Department of Environment shows that organic agriculture uses 25 percent less than energy than their chemical counterparts, and certain crops like organic leeks and broccoli use 58 and 49 percent less, respectively (Bialis et al. 2013). Third, organic farming does not use pesticides. According to the World Health Center, 20,000 people die annually from the exposure of pesticides (Costa et al. 2014). Fourth, the methods that organic farmers use are better for the environment in the long run. And lastly, organic farming creates more jobs. A study done in United Kingdom shows 93,000 jobs could be created if Britain were to make a full scale shift to organic farming (Herro 2006). Although conventional agriculture is the primary producer for food currently, a large scale shift to organic agriculture is better suited to feed the world because organic agriculture can produce at adequate yield, requires less energy input, do not use
Composting is the process of biodegrading the waste material in which an enormous number of materials like hydrocarbons, nitrogenous compounds, acids, their derivatives and even other organic and inorganic substances can be remediated from the environment (Finstein et al., 1986). Compost pro...
...emonstrated above each group identified has a chance to police and control the operation of these facilities. They all can choose to pass the buck and blame someone else; or they can step up and take control. We all have an ethical responsibility to do what is right. We need to protect the environment while ensuring human prosperity. The Government is here for us, they work for us and we must ensure that they do what we want, not what is best for industry or big business.
Soil is the most important non-renewable resource on any farm. Healthy soil is key to a good