Research breakthroughs have been pretty great for Mother Earth lately: We’re on the cusp of treating polluted water with little more than apple and tomato peels, and now Professor Edward Cocking from the University of Nottingham has created a new technology which may soon bring the end of environment destroying fertilizers.

The new technology, known as N-Fix, puts nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots. With this bacteria, plants are then able to fix and hold nitrogen from the atmosphere, rather than just from the soil (where we must use harmful synthetic nitrogen fertilizers).

This method of nitrogen absorption can provide a plant with almost all of its nitrogen requirements, making nitrogen-rich fertilizer redundant. The possible implications for agriculture – and the entire food system – are huge.

“Helping plants to naturally obtain the nitrogen they need is a key aspect of World Food Security,” Cocking told the University of Nottingham press.

What’s so important about nitrogen?

via The End of Environment-Destroying Fertilizers Could Be Near | Care2 Causes.