"**The most radical way to cut energy costs and the environmental impact of nitrogen fertilizers is to reduce how much is used**: that option is available to affluent countries with their excessive food supply and waste—**but hundreds of millions of stunted children, mostly in [[Africa]], need to drink more milk and eat more meat, and that protein can come only from substantially increasing the amount of nitrogen they use in cropping**. "Just to drive this conclusion home, **annual applications of fertilizers average about 160 kilograms per hectare of agricultural land in the [[EU]] and less than 20 kilograms in [[Ethiopia]],** an order-of-magnitude difference illustrating the huge development gap that is so often ignored in appraisals of global needs." ([Location 4155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08SGC3TD3&location=4155)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[just-transition]], [[demographics]], [[food-production]], [[food-security]], [[nitrogen]], [[fertilisers]], [[energy-consumption]], **Source** -- [[202412030828 - B - How the World Really Works]]