Soil fertility and fertiliser with Mark Tucker from Yara International.

Yara as a company may not be a familiar name, but as we found out they are a huge multinational company producing and selling fertiliser. Fertiliser, along with other agricultural 'chemical additives' has been somewhat demonised in recent years as awareness of the damage we have done to our natural environment has increased. Mark shared the much more complex and nuanced reality, including that the carbon footprint of fertiliser varies greatly depending on where and how it is made, and why replacing artificial fertiliser with animal manures is an imperfect solution. He also explained how food production companies are driving innovation on farms, and told us of some of the changes Yara are making to reduce their own emissions, including building Europe's largest CCS (carbon capture and storage) plant, and plans to launch an ammonia-powered container ship in 2027.