Washington-The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) joined representatives from the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), the Soil and Water Conservation Society, and the World Bank in May in conducting a United Nations (UN) learning center course titled A Global Toolbox to Manage Water and Nutrients for Agri-Communities. TFI Vice President of Scientific Programs Bill Herz presented at the UN sanctioned course, which was held as a part of the sixteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-16) at UN headquarters in New York City. The objective of the learning center course was to teach delegates about technologies and tools, including best management practices (BMPs), available to achieve sustainable agricultural production goals and improve water quality and availability. Through the center, delegates learned how to identify the best management practices or land practices within the toolbox that protect and enhance water quality. TFI’s presentation centered on its stewardship system of using the right fertilizer product at the right rate, time, and place. “Using the tools that are available to them, farmers can properly manage fertilizers and on-farm sources of nutrients to meet food production needs while protecting the environment,” said Herz. “With today’s food supply crisis as a backdrop, it is important to remember that adequate soil fertility is often a limiting factor in enhanced food production.” The Commission on Sustainable Development – also known as CSD – was created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, also known as the Earth Summit), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where world leaders signed the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity; endorsed the Rio Declaration and the Forest Principles; and adopted Agenda 21, a 300-page plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century. A copy of TFI’s learning center presentation can be found on TFI’s Web site at www.tfi.org.

Washington-The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) on May 16 discussed the impact of the natural gas crisis on the U.S. fertilizer industry before the U.S. Senate Republican Conference at a hearing titled More American Energy: Lowering the Cost of Energy and Balancing the Family Budget. Terra Industries Inc. President and TFI Chairman Michael Bennett testified on behalf of TFI. Bennett told the group that “in seven of the last eight years since 2000, global consumption of grain and oilseeds has exceeded production. If the world’s farmers stopped growing food today, we would only have enough grains in the world’s storage bins to feed the world’s population for 55 days.” He told the senators that fertilizer use currently represents 40 percent of the world’s food production and will have to continue to be a part of the solution toward resolving the food crisis. He emphasized that escalating domestic natural gas prices had caused 26 U.S. nitrogen plants to shut down since 2000. “Currently, only 30 nitrogen plants are operating in the U.S. and 55 percent of the U.S. farmer’s nitrogen fertilizer is imported. In less than 10 years, we went from being basically self-sufficient in nitrogen fertilizer supply to importing more than half of our needs.” He said America’s food security ?Çô and by extension, its national security ?Çô will be jeopardized if action is not taken to address the country’s natural gas crisis. He said TFI supports the newly introduced “Domestic Energy Production Act (S.2958),” which the Senate Republican leadership recently introduced. He added that the fertilizer industry particularly supports provisions that would allow states to petition to lift federal moratoriums on drilling off their shores and the bill’s efforts to promote important coal-to-liquids technologies and energy production initiatives.