Read the full story at Anthropocene Magazine.
The fertilizers that feed humanity are made in huge pressure cookers, heated to 450°C (840°F), in factories that gush an estimated 450 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. But what if tomorrow’s fertilizers were grown—nourished with sunlight and air—instead of cooked into existence?
A new study published in NPJ Sustainable Agriculture demonstrates how purple bacteria—normally found in estuaries, bays, ponds, and lake—could be grown in vats of water, smooshed into dry powder, and sprinkled on fields to increase yields. If successful, this approach could also alleviate other environmental harms caused by synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.
See also
Shruthi, Morey-Yagi, S. R., Hanh, D. D., Maki, T., Ochiai, K., Iwahashi, Y., Murata, K., Shibata, M., Inoue, H., Nakano, R., Nakazaki, T., & Numata, K. (2026). Effects of marine purple bacterial fertilizer on mineralization, nitrous oxide emissions and broccoli yield. Npj Sustainable Agriculture, 4(1), 68. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-026-00174-5 [open access]