What if Electricity Could Help Nature Feed the World?

How do we feed a growing population without relying so heavily on energy intensive fertilizers? Food production depends on nitrogen, yet most fertilizers today are made using processes that consume huge amounts of energy and contribute to climate change and pollution. Finding sustainable alternatives is a major challenge.

In nature, some microbes can convert nitrogen from the air into ammonia, the form plants need. This process, called biological nitrogen fixation, happens under mild conditions but is slow and energy intensive.

This lecture explores electro-agriculture, showing how microbes can get a small boost of electricity to help with natural nitrogen fixation. We look at where this approach could work, where the limits are, and how microbes and renewable energy could help shape the future of sustainable farming.

(Photo: Shutterstock)