Fertiliser

In my Norfolk village, along the river, there’s an old bone-mill, which used to crush bones (including human bones) for agricultural fertiliser. The plant-growth benefits of bonemeal and nitrogen were discovered by German chemist Justus von Liebig. In 1841, British industrialist John Bennet Lawes turned this knowledge into the world’s first artificial fertiliser factory at Rothamsted. Liebig tested organic and chemical concoctions on 24 strips of land and found that fields treated with chemical fertilisers retained 2 or 3 wild plant species, while untreated fields supported 50 species. So we knew from the start: artificial fertiliser wipes out biodiversity.

— Wayne Visser

From Purpose Inspired: Reflections on Conscious Living, Volume 4. Buy on Lulu ↗