New Center of Excellence Aims to Provide Alternatives to Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer

Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is a major contributor to climate change and environmental pollution. Modern-day agriculture was not developed to be highly nitrogen efficient and growers apply 22 million pounds of nitrogen fertilizer to crops in the U.S. annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.  Scientists at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center have established a new Subterranean Influences on Nitrogen and Carbon (SINC) Center of Excellence to address this global challenge. The SINC Center aims to develop technologies to decrease the use of nitrogen fertilizer, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, by 12% without the loss of crop productivity. Such a reduction in the U.S. would be equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road. Watch the video.  READ MORE