Growing Food, Sowing Trouble
How changing national diets could help fix our global food crisis
Chinese farmers plant the largest amount of potatoes in the world, and the country produces about 20% of the global potato output. But while fresh potatoes are a traditional part of the Chinese national diet, they’re viewed as a vegetable rather than as a staple, and China’s per capita consumption of potato is below the global average. In 2015, the Chinese government decided to try and change that.
We’re not fixing this environmental crisis. Could one ditch show us the way?
A common fertilizer can cause explosions. Uneven regulation puts people at risk.
Gulf shrimpers fight for their livelihoods in a fertilizer-fueled dead zone
Lake Erie turns toxic every summer. Officials aren’t cracking down on the source.
Farming’s growing problem
Fertilizers are contaminating and warming the planet. Regulators haven't acted on decades-old warnings.
Africa’s producing more fertilizer, but it’s still not getting to all farmers
Africa’s turning a corner toward producing fertilizer locally.