A more natural way to keep our food greener

Country Living with Francis Farragher

There was a time about a half generation back when we were all blissfully unaware of such topics as greenhouse gas emissions, slurry gas or the impact of carbon dioxide on our atmosphere and food.

Now a day won’t pass without some new contribution on all the stuff floating around in our atmosphere, apparently burning holes in our ozone layer, that protects us from the most harmful rays of the sun.

The deadliest of those gases from a human health point is hydrogen sulphide (H2S) that is produced in slurry tanks from a series of chemical reactions and that gets trapped under the crust of the liquid over the course of the winter.

When that crust is broken at the point of agitation the gas escapes into the immediate atmosphere with the inhalation of a lung full, enough to be fatal.

Farmers should have enough in their self-preservation instincts to steer clear of the slurry hazard but it continues to claim lives, year-in, year-out – what cannot be seen or scented can be the stealthiest of enemies.

On a more global level, the agriculture industry across the world is coming under increasing pressure to leave less of a carbon footprint from their food producing activities – in other words to produce less greenhouse gases that damage our atmosphere.

One of the biggest culprits to be identified over the past couple of decades has been Nitrous Oxide (N2O), a gas that is naturally present in the atmosphere but that increases in proportion to fertiliser/nitrogen use on farms.

The great ‘catch’ in all of this is that with the world population shooting up each year – we’re currently over the seven billion mark – the demand for food is going to grow and grow.

To meet that demand, farmers will have to produce more crops and animals and to do this they need to keep their farms highly fertile by applying higher rates of the basic nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potash.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, agricultural emissions account for about 75% of their total N2O output, so now a huge chunk of research budgets has been allocated to try and come with some natural way of limiting the production of this substance.

Teagasc are currently involved in a European research project examining how some soil micro-organisms can naturally break down the nitrous oxide output from farms.

Scientists from Teagasc along with their counterparts in Scotland, Sweden and France have now discovered a family of soil microbes that can help to neutralise the impact of the nitrous oxide.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.