Feeding Our Planet

Our growing world population needs an increasing amount of safe, affordable and nutritious food. World population has doubled in the 40 years between 1968 (3.55 billion) to 2008 (6.8 billion). It is now estimated that the population of the world will be a little over 9 billion people by 2050. That’s 100,000,000 a year, or 273,972 a day!

The connection between fertilizer and population is evident. As Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Norman Borlaug explains, “This is a basic problem, to feed 6.6 billion people. Without chemical fertilizer, forget it. The game is over.” Fertilizer is responsible for approximately 50 percent of our world’s food production. In fact, North American food production tripled between 1940 and 1990 and was achieved using less acreage – all due to efficient use of fertilizers.