Germinating Conversations: Sustainable Food Production - How do we do that!?

Join soil scientist Dr. Mario Tenuta, along with three farmer respondents for a conversation on soil, fertilizer, greenhouse gases and climate change. Stay for cookies and conversation after the presentations.

This conversation will focus on the sustainability of nitrogen use in food production. The incredible growth in human population over the 75 years has been largely the result of the greater abundance of available food. Half the world’s current population is here because of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Just an incredible feat. However feeding this many individuals has implications for local and global environmental health. Growing consensus among scientists is current production practices are not sustainable in the long run. In particular food production will need to come into balance with global biogeochemical cycles such as nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus. How do we do that and what are the short, medium and long-term steps or dare we say, revolutions in food production, required? We hope to have a respectful, constructive and thought-provoking discussion on the role of nitrogen in the pathway to truly sustainable food production.

Mario Tenuta (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.), P.Ag., is the Professor of Applied Soil Ecology at the University of Manitoba. A key feature of the 4R Industrial Research program is conducting farm-based research with particular attention to the outreach of findings to farmers, industry and policy-makers to achieve national target reductions in emissions of N 2 O and position towards a path of net-zero food production.

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