Wheatland County plays a bigger role in ending world hunger than you may expect

World Hunger Day is coming up on Sunday, May 28, which is a day to recognize that world hunger and a lack of food continue to be a problem across the Globe. Canada plays a large role in helping address this through our extensive agriculture industry, and one key aspect of that is fertilizer production.

Canada produces 12% of the world's fertilizer supply, which includes nitrogen fertilizer, one of three major nutrients essential to plant nutrition. This is an area Wheatland County plays a large role in, as Nutrien's Carseland nitrogen facility produces fertilizer which plays a key role in supporting global sustainable food systems.

“Food security and hunger is a global challenge, but it’s amazing that the Strathmore area is part of the solution, helping to lead a new era of sustainable agriculture and address global food security,” said Nutrien's Carseland General Manager Katrina Hauck Miller.

Saying the Carseland facility uses "world-class technology," Hauck Miller explained nitrogen fertilizer-producing plants are currently pushing the envelope to see how we can better address world hunger. For Nutrien and other producers, a big part of this is reducing carbon emissions to help the environment while simultaneously making production more efficient.

“Across the business, we’re focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the manufacturing process of low-carbon ammonia, the basic building block of all nitrogen fertilizers, by up to 80 percent through carbon capture technology and other low-emission production technologies."

Helping the environment isn't a separate initiative from world hunger, as climate change has played a role in food production. Thus, lowering emissions not only makes things more efficient, it also has potential longterm benefits in our climate to keep food production high.

"Growers are experiencing wetter springs, hotter and drier summers, and wetter and wilder winters, all of which impact yields across our crops and farming systems."

The United Nations expects the global population to hit 9.7 billion people by 2050, meaning food production will have to account for around two billion more people in just three decades. Fertilizer production plays a huge role in this, as maintaining soil for proper growing conditions and growing nutritious crops are essential to keeping up with population growth. 

Beyond planning for expected growth, approximately 1/3 of the world's population is classified as either moderately or severely food insecure. 

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