Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

Presentation by Sara Shipley Hiles, Bailey Becker, Joy Mazur, and Jocelyn Heimsoth

Learn about the environmental impacts of fertilizer from award-winning journalist and journalism educator Sara Shipley Hiles and University of Missouri School of Journalism students.

Matthew Backer spreads anhydrous ammonia onto a field on April 4 at Wise Bros Inc. in Kingdom City. Photo by Kate Cassady

Few inventions have changed the world like synthetic fertilizer. Without it, the planet’s population would be roughly half what it is today. Scientists learned to mine nutrients from the ground and pull chemicals from the air to boost food production and make farming more efficient.

But fertilizer production and use also threaten human and environmental health. The energy-intensive industry emits more heat-trapping gases than global aviation while leaving an unfair industrial burden on low-income communities. Meanwhile, less than half of fertilizer spread on fields is taken up by plants. The rest pollutes air and water, contributing to climate change, toxic algae blooms and oxygen-depleted water where life is snuffed out.

Funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative, The Price of Plenty teamed up student journalists from the University of Florida and the University of Missouri to report on the fertilizer industry from the ground up. Thank you to University of Missouri Professor and Executive Director of the Ag & Water Desk, Sara Shipley Hiles and her students Bailey Becker, Joy Mazur, and Jocelyn Heimsoth for sharing with us the findings of their report: The Price of Plenty.