According to recent estimates by the UN, world population is expected to grow by nearly 2 billion over the next 30 years, from the current 8 billion to 9.7 billion by 2050, with a projected peak of nearly 10.4 billion in the mid-2080s. With the Earth’s arable land in finite supply, clearly, crop yields must improve sustainably.

Food is at the core of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the 21st century. An important one of those SDGs is to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” Achieving this goal by its target date of 2030 demands major changes in the global food and agriculture systems. Two of the UN’s stated components of the goal are: doubling the agricultural productivity of small-scale food producers and ensuring food production systems are sustainable.

Ask about natural gas on the farm and how it relates to our food supply, and most people will respond with things like heating, fuel, and transportation to the supermarket. Those are certainly a sizeable part of the picture. But there’s a whole lot more to it. Many are not aware of another major role natural gas plays in the planet’s food security today: the production of synthetic fertilizers.

And here’s where natural gas becomes indispensable: as feedstock for fertilizer manufacture. For nitrogen-based fertilizers, the largest product group, the process starts by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas at high temperatures and pressure to create ammonia. About 60% of the natural gas is used as raw material and the remainder powers the synthesis process. Ammonia or urea (a solid made from ammonia) are the richest sources of fertilizing nitrogen available. Synthetic fertilizers have been called “supercharged versions of organic fertilizers.” The description is apt: for example, hog manure contains about one per cent nitrogen; urea is closer to 46 per cent.

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for virtually all plant life. It’s the starting point for all mineral nitrogen fertilizers. About 70% of world ammonia production is used to make fertilizer. According to a June 2022 analysis paper by the International Energy Agency (IEA), apart from China, across the world ammonia is made almost exclusively from natural gas, consuming around 170 billion cubic metres (4% of global gas consumption) annually.

“The importance of energy has never been of more significance to Canadian agriculture and its capacity to support global food security.” says Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

Synthetic fertilizers have largely eliminated the need for tilling, which increases carbon sequestration, reduces inputs like labour, fuel and machinery to till the land, and helps maintain soil health.

Synthetic fertilizers give farmers an edge. They can either be immediately available to plants— by virtue of their solubility—or slowly release their active ingredients to provide a continuous nutrient supply. Both can be advantageous. The former provides an immediate growth response; the latter, longer-term benefits like decreased costs.

These factors make use of synthetic fertilizers highly desirable. In Canada, their use is about 50 per cent higher than a decade ago, helping to yield substantial volumes of surplus grain for export. According to Statistics Canada, in 2021 Canada exported $8.3 billion worth of wheat—we were the fourth largest exporter in the world. The leading destinations for Canadian wheat that year were China, Japan, and Indonesia.

“The importance of energy has never been of more significance to Canadian agriculture and its capacity to support global food security,” says Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Currie speaks with authority: he’s an 8th-generation Canadian farmer and has represented dozens of agricultural boards, organizations, associations, and government advisory committees.

It’s not just Canada. According to a March 2023 paper by the American Gas Association, fertilizer and other agrochemical production is the most significant consumer of natural gas in the agriculture supply chain of the US as well. The paper reports that between 70% and 80% of all energy used to produce the fertilizers critical to the increased domestic US production of crops such as wheat, soybeans, corn, rice, and oats, comes from natural gas.

Moreover, it’s worldwide. The benefits of natural gas in world agriculture span every stage of food cultivation, harvesting, and delivery. It has become a fuel of choice for fertilizer production, powering irrigation systems, farm equipment, transportation vehicles, and much more. “Whether heating barns and greenhouses or fueling grain drying and other on-farm applications, access to natural gas is a critical driver of agriculture’s environmental footprint and farmers’ ability to produce food affordably,” says Currie.

 

“Whether heating barns and greenhouses or fuelling grain drying and other on-farm applications, access to natural gas is a critical driver of agriculture’s environmental footprint and farmers’ ability to produce food affordably.” says Currie.

And it’s growing. The role of natural gas has gained further prominence in recent years as food price inflation outpaces general inflation. Also, as discussed above, natural gas supports the UN’s environmental sustainability goals, given that it is the cleanest, most affordable and most efficient fossil fuel available for many farm processes. It makes the solid connection between food security both in Canada and around the world, and energy security for Canadian farmers.

In order to maintain that connection, Currie believes Canada needs expanded infrastructure for the delivery of natural gas as a reliable, affordable, and clean fossil fuel—so farmers can further reduce their emissions while remaining globally competitive. Development of new such infrastructure offers the potential of supporting even further developments in renewable natural gas. For example: use of agricultural by-products for generation of cleaner energy in the future.

Canada will continue to play its part, Currie adds. “We need to be strategic, invest in the future of our industries, and work together to seize the opportunities Canada has in front of it to be a global leader in the sustainable supply of food and energy.”

 

Graham Chandler spent a decade in energy corporate finance and marketing management. As a full-time freelance writer, he has specialized in energy topics for the past 20 years.