this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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So what, now my piss is liquid gold???
In 1561 the queen of England had to pay a German 300 pounds of gold for a manual for saltpeter production that was basically "bury a bunch of shit and piss and regularly water it"
I was curious so I looked into it a bit more. Yep that's about the gist of it.
70% of the nitrogen in your body comes from fertilizer fixed from the air through these chemical processes requiring fossil fuels. If it runs out 70% of humanity will starve.
??? Firstly, my post was a funny one about piss.
Secondly, "It is estimated that a third of annual global food production uses ammonia from the Haber–Bosch process", so, averaging 30%, not 70.
Thirdly, fossil-fuel based fertilizer production is unnecessary and has harmful side-effects. It's doable completely without fossil fuels, and the fact we've not divested even more out of that already is our own stupidity, not a reason to say "fossil fuels good".
Fourthly, given the amount of BEANS I eat, and they in fact do their own nitrogen fixing. I daresay my percentage of fossil-fuel derived fertilizer-enabling nitrogen is actually much lower.
does 30% of food production equal 30% of calories? High calorie foods like corn and wheat need more nitrogen fertilizer than others.
Okay