Risk to Resilience: Rethinking Ammonia
Agriculture is constantly changing. Farmers have always evolved, adapting to new challenges and opportunities. Fertilizer has been central to that story, influencing yields, livelihoods, and how we care for the land. Today, the choices farmers face carry more weight than ever. Some fertilizers worsen the crisis with high emissions and fragile supply chains. Others tie us to unsustainable and outdated practices that damage soil and water. It’s time to rethink fertilizer once more and, this time, place farmers at the heart of the solution.
Grey Ammonia: The Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuel Fertilizer
For over a century, grey ammonia has dominated nitrogen fertilizer production, made from fossil fuels in massive industrial facilities. The environmental and social costs of this process are not reflected in financial statements; they are borne by our atmosphere, our fields, and on the shoulders of farmers. Producing each tonne of grey ammonia emits over two tonnes of CO₂ into the atmosphere, locking agriculture into a cycle that fuels harmful global changes. Simultaneously, it keeps farmers reliant on remote, centralized supply chains where fertilizer travels thousands of kilometres via aging infrastructure, making it susceptible to disruptions.
Fluctuations in fuel prices, geopolitical conflicts, and shipping delays do not just increase expenses; they undermine peace of mind, adding stress to every planting season. Fertilizer should give farmers confidence and build resilience, not create fragility.
While fossil-fuel fertilizer is costly in many ways, the so-called “natural/organic” alternative is no less problematic.
An Inefficient Fertilizer Pathway
Chained to Tradition: The Burden of Manure
Manure is often described as a “natural” fertilizer, but in truth, it is one of the least efficient ways to nourish crops on a scale that provides for global food security.
Producing fertilizer from animals drains land, water, and feed that could instead grow crops to nourish billions more people. Nearly 80% of global farmland is devoted to livestock, yet it provides less than 20% of the world’s calories. This is a pathway that consumes more than it gives back, which is illogical and unsustainable in the long term. On top of this inefficiency, concentrated animal housing pollutes waterways, saturates soils, demands heavy energy use, and poses health risks to neighbouring communities, leaving ecosystems and rural families to bear the cost.
Ethical Concerns in Animal Agriculture
Manure is also inseparable from industrial livestock production, a system built on confinement and outdated practices that raise serious ethical concerns (hyperlink to https://animaljustice.ca/issues/farming). These practices often rely on the repeated exploitation of female animals’ reproductive cycles, keeping them in a state of near-constant reproduction. The conditions in which many animals are raised no longer align with the expectations of a modern society, yet reform has been delayed by powerful lobbying and weak oversight.
Too often, the animal farming industry exposes workers to a high risk of injury and psychological stress. Over time, the pressures of this work can significantly affect health and well-being and can have devastating long-term consequences.
Farmers Caught in the Middle
Canada’s farmers deserve better choices. Fertilizer should be efficient, fair, and sustainable, not a byproduct of a system that wastes resources and burdens communities.
Why Nitrogen Fertilizer Matters
Nitrogen is a vital nutrient for all plants. It forms a fundamental part of proteins, enzymes, and chlorophyll, the molecule that enables photosynthesis. Without sufficient nitrogen, crops struggle to grow properly, their leaves become pale, and yields decrease. Since most soils cannot naturally provide the required levels for crops, farmers need to add nitrogen fertilizer to ensure healthy growth, strong harvests, and provide enough food to feed the global population.
Same Molecule, Different Sources
The need for nitrogen fertilizer is universal, but the source and management of nitrogen make all the difference. Whether nitrogen comes from manure, conventional grey synthetic fertilizer, or Green Ammonia, it is the same exact molecule. Once applied, depending on the conditions during application, soils can convert nitrogen into plant nutrition or into nitrous oxide and other loss pathways, so emissions must be managed as a whole system from planning to application to minimise environmental impact of any type of fertilizer.
Smarter Tools, Applied Efficiently: Using Science to Target Emissions
Nitrogen emissions are not entirely avoidable yet, but new methods are expanding what is possible. Advanced soil testing, drone and satellite mapping, AI-based crop and weather models, and precise application techniques like injection and variable-rate application help deliver exactly what a field needs, when it needs it. These approaches, among others, minimise waste, and cut losses and nitrogen emissions.
FuelPositive Technology: Control, Consistency, Confidence
FuelPositive’s Green Ammonia systems offer precision and efficiency. By producing fertilizer directly on the farm, the FuelPositive Systems give farmers control to apply at the right time and at predictable costs.
Conventional grey ammonia, linked to volatile fossil fuel markets, leaves farmers vulnerable to unpredictable price swings. FuelPositive removes this uncertainty by producing Green Ammonia locally. The only variable input cost is electricity, which can be stabilized through renewable energy sources. The result is consistent, competitive pricing that helps farmers plan with confidence.
FuelPositive breaks the cycle of delay and urgency by making sure fertilizer is always available and ready when conditions are right. This reduces stress from the supply chain and leads to stronger, more dependable yields.
Green Ammonia: The Smarter Choice
Nitrogen Fertilizer Comparison Table
| Grey Ammonia (Centralized, Fossil-Fuel-Based) |
Manure (“Natural” Fertilizer) |
FP1500 Green Ammonia (FuelPositive) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Yield Reliability | Historical nitrogen, but supply chain delays and costs reduce confidence. | Nutrients inconsistent, low concentration, not scalable for global food needs. | Consistent, on-farm nitrogen supply, always available when needed. |
| Cost Stability | Tied to fossil fuels and geopolitics; highly volatile. | Local but transport, storage, and variability add costs; not available in northern regions and tied to animal agriculture. | Anchored only to electricity; stable, competitive, and renewable-ready. |
| Environmental Impact | ~2 tonnes CO₂ per tonne of NH₃ produced; major climate and runoff issues. | Methane, nitrous oxide, runoff, odours; pollution burden from large-scale animal farming. | Near-zero CO₂e with renewables; precision reduces losses, no large waste issues; ongoing R&D to further reduce nitrous oxide emissions. |
| Land & Resource Use | Large industrial plants, energy-intensive. Relies on hydrogen from natural gas (methane) via steam methane reforming (SMR). | Requires vast land, feed, and water for animals; low efficiency. | Compact <0.5 acre footprint; efficient water use (1.6t water = 1t ammonia). |
| Practicality | Centralized production, long-distance transport. | Labour-heavy handling, storage, odour, and health concerns; ethical concerns tied to industrial animal agriculture. | Hands-off, modular, remote monitoring; no extra workload and no worries. |
| Scalability | Expansion requires massive industrial plants and land use; difficult to scale, controversial impacts. | Limited scalability due to land, logistics, nutrient density, and ethics; controversial reliance on animal agriculture. | Modular and expandable; grows with farms without major land use; integrates renewables and future modules. |
Duty of Care
At FuelPositive, we stand for positive change. We believe farming and rural life can be independent, sustainable, and regenerative and that thriving communities are built when people have agency over their future.
Our duty of care means acting with integrity, respecting the land, and committing to ethical practices in everything we do. We are committed to walking with farmers, rural leaders, and Indigenous communities in a spirit of respect and reciprocity, creating lasting solutions that leave the land and our communities better for generations to come.
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