FERTILIZER CRISIS

Can We Grow Food Without Fertilizer?

Fertilizer Crisis

A 21-nautical-mile stretch of water could trigger a global famine. The Strait of Hormuz controls up to half the world’s fertilizer. The Ukraine war is also a major disruption, and we’ve hit Peak Fertilizer. Cheap, mined minerals are over, and our food system is fragile.

What if you could opt out without buying a single bag of fertilizer? It’s a method where you become the supply chain by harnessing the biology already on your land. We’ll get to the solution in a moment.

The current state of the world means that a tiny stretch of water can cause global famine. Up to 50% of the world’s fertilizer passes through that narrow strait, depending on how you define the term. A lot of it is nitrogen. Fertilizer is blocked; farmers can’t plant; crops don’t grow; people go hungry.

But here’s the secret. The air around you is 78% nitrogen!

And here's the problem: it’s in a form that plants and crops can’t use.

In Nature, plants have symbiotic relationships with soil biology. Plants collect sunlight and convert that energy into sugars. They trade some of those sugars with soil organisms that convert minerals and nutrients, such as nitrogen, into forms that plants can use. It’s a tightly coupled exchange of resources, and this cycling of nutrients is what ultimately allows life on Earth to exist.

When mankind learned how to chemically convert nitrogen from petroleum into plant-available forms during our “better living through chemistry” phase, we created modern agriculture. Farm production boomed and became what is referred to as conventional farming.

There are reasons why this type of farming is counter-productive in the long term, even though it looks highly efficient in the short term, but that’s not the discussion here. Just note that these problems include the need to increase fertilizer, input, and pesticide use.

Conventional farming is linear, extractive, and dependent on off-farm fertilizer delivery. Those fertilizers, such as nitrogen, are produced from petroleum. Thus, a tiny waterway blocks global food production.

Clearly, current events show that conventional agriculture is subject to geopolitical disruption and therefore is not as stable or sustainable as it has been sold.

Remember, I told you there is a way to opt out. You may be thinking the answer is to go organic.

ORGANIC

Organic methods try to solve the fertilizer problem by using nitrogen-fixing plants and compost.

Nitrogen Fixers

Nitrogen fixers are plants that convert atmospheric nitrogen into usable nitrogen and store it in root nodules. Legumes are typically used.

There are drawbacks. Nitrogen-fixing plants hold most of their nitrogen in root nodules and tissues, not in the surrounding soil, so little is available to nearby crops during growth. Unless the plant is cut and decomposed, transfer is minimal, and competition for light, water, and space can reduce overall yield unless carefully managed.

Compost

Compost can work. It is a good way to get nutrients in plant-available forms, but it is labor intensive and inconsistent. I call it “pile and pray.” Here too, soil biology drives nutrient conversion, but the results vary depending on what is added and how it’s managed. It’s an artificial construction of a natural process.

Organic Shortfalls

Back in the 60s, when I was first learning how to grow organically, these approaches were mostly what we practiced. It was based on traditional knowledge and techniques.

Once organic standards were established, organic gardening shifted from traditional practices to systems designed for monetization. Just like conventional agriculture, organic agriculture turned farmers into consumers rather than producers.

Inputs became less toxic, but the system still relied on purchasing inputs, both to grow (fertilizers) and to kill (pesticides), and profit shifted from farmers to corporations.

Don’t get me wrong, I love organic. I started learning organic principles literally as a toddler, and I was an organic grower for most of my life, but I later found a better technology.

It’s called Natural Farming. It includes practices that support soil, land, and human health. This takes growing food beyond certified organic, which just uses less-toxic inputs.

Eventually, I came across a specific systems-based approach to Natural Farming that crystallized everything into one practice. More on that in a moment. First, we need a definition.

NATURAL FARMING

Natural Farming is growing food in ways that most closely resemble how food grows in the wild.

It is growing food by working with natural processes rather than trying to control them. By restoring biological balance, farmers return much of the work of food production to the system itself. Instead of being linear and extractive, Natural Farming is circular and regenerative.

Natural Farming avoids reliance on outside inputs, using local materials and natural techniques to build resilient, low-cost systems where soil, plants, animals, and people thrive together.

Can you see where we are going with this?

This approach improves the health of the ecosystem, the quality and yield of the plants and animals produced, while simultaneously reducing labor.

Natural Farming

• Works with Nature

• Mimics natural processes

• Restores biological balance

• Relies on nature to do much of the work

• Reduces reliance on external inputs

• Uses local materials and natural techniques

• Builds resilient, low-cost systems

• Plants, animals, soil, and people thrive together

• Enables plants, animals, soil, and people to thrive together

 Natural Farming Benefits

• Grow more and better food

• Spend little to no money

• Avoid most pests and diseases

• Work with Nature

• Restore local ecology

• Stop relying on supply chains

• Use local materials and natural techniques

• Build resilient, low-cost systems

• Plants, animals, soil, and people thrive together

But we can do even better. The specific Natural Farming system I alluded to earlier is known as Korean Natural Farming, or KNF.

KOREAN NATURAL FARMING

While Natural Farming is a general term, Korean Natural Farming refers to the system developed by Han-Kyu Cho of South Korea. He’s known as Master Cho. Master Cho taught and developed his system for over 50 years, introducing it to more than 30 countries.

He designed it to help farmers with little to no resources.

Master Cho freely shared his knowledge. The only thing he charged for was a line of mineral solutions, a convenience but not required. As a certified KNF instructor, having learned directly from Master Cho, I want to honor the free dissemination of his knowledge.

I have written a large library of free articles posted here on this website, and now on our channel Natural Farming Field Notes.

One of Master Cho’s accomplishments was planting trees in the Gobi Desert. He planted trees in the Gobi Desert, where rainfall is essentially nonexistent, with a success rate of nearly 100%.

He has many stories of his successes. He describes a farm with such rocky soil that he could only penetrate with a soil penetrometer (a probe rod used to test compaction) a few centimeters. In three years' time, he could easily push the entire rod into the now friable soil. That’s a change in soil from rocks to friable, almost a meter deep, in three years.

I witnessed a similar demonstration in Kona, Hawaii, where the challenge wasn’t just rocky soil, but solid lava rock. I helped a farm in the area plant coffee a few years earlier. The only way to make a hole to plant the coffee was to blast the lava with dynamite.

These examples are well documented. The results from KNF go far beyond what you would expect from a fertilizer program. And chances are you are not living in the Gobi Desert or on solid lava rock.

KNF PRACTICE OVERVIEW

Soil Foundation & IMO (Indigenous Microorganisms)

Creating a living soil for fertility, resilience, and nutrient cycling.

Seed & Genetic Foundation

Aligning plant genetics with local conditions to maximize expression and resilience.

Biological Cycling & Animal Integration

Designing pathways that include animals to enhance nutrient cycling and system health.

Nutritive Cycle & Biochemical Signaling (BST/FPJ)

Using plant ferments to guide growth phases through biochemical signaling.

Observational & Adaptive Design (Vital Forces)

Designing inputs and formulas through careful observation of conditions.

Minerals

Applying seawater and bioavailable minerals to maintain elemental balance.

WHY KNF IS THE SOLUTION

Korean Natural Farming can grow food using little to no money. Since it can be practiced using locally available materials, supply chains can be avoided. Inputs are made from materials found on or near the farm. They are safe and non-toxic. Everything in KNF is edible. Many inputs can be used as medicine.

Inputs come from on or near the farm. Natural materials are recycled on-site. Water and runoff are eliminated. The system is regenerative, promotes ecosystems, and supports wildlife.

It builds topsoil every year and sequesters carbon, nitrogen, and water. Soil is also improved at depth. All soil problems can be remediated.

Because plants are allowed to control their own nutrition, and are cultivated to encourage the full development of their genetic potential, yields increase and are of the highest quality. Increases in crop nutrition have been documented.

High-quality crops and livestock command higher prices. By eliminating the need for purchased fertilizers and pesticides, farmers not only reduce costs but also increase their overall returns because they can sell a product of the highest quality.

Since the ecology and health of plants and animals are optimized, they experience almost no pests or disease. This saves time, money, and the heartache of loss.

Animals are treated with respect and love. They are given habitats that allow them to express their true nature. In the same way that crops can be grown without fertilizer, proper management allows animals to be fed without relying on purchased feed.

Intact and balanced soil ecosystems are collected on or near the farm, and are referred to as Indigenous Micro-Organisms (IMO). The process is easy and is used to inoculate the planting soil. A single application can be enough. This culture is the engine that drives the entire system.

The same inoculant used for soil is added to animals' bedding (a technique called the Inoculated Deep Litter System, IDLS) and to feed. Both of these steps enhance their immune systems, so they experience little disease or pest problems.

Animal housing has no visible manure, no smell, no flies. The bedding does not need to be mucked out. It stays clean, dry, and fluffy.

The inoculated bedding, when placed in a properly designed building, can keep animals warm in winter and cool in summer. It is warm enough to brood baby chicks without a hen or an additional heat source.

I was skeptical the first time I tried it. I kept a heating lamp installed, just in case, and checked on the chicks every few hours, day and night. There was a cold snap during this time period, and I was very worried.

I’m a believer now.

I also found that once I had IDLS in my barn, I no longer had any animal disease. Even the chickens were completely free from mites with no intervention. I have used it for chickens, pigs, ducks, sheep, cattle, horses, and even an orphaned rabbit.

In turn, bedding can be used on crops as an inoculated mulch, bringing integration full circle.

Fertilizer shortages, disrupted supply chains, and rising global instability all point to the same underlying issue: modern food production is highly dependent on external inputs and fragile supply chains. We can’t change geopolitics, but we can change how we manage food production.

Organic agriculture reduces some of that dependence, but it is labor intensive, inconsistent, and often still requires purchased inputs.

Natural Farming offers a different path, restoring function to living biological systems rather than relying on external inputs.

If this sounds like something you would like to know more about, or if you know about it but it sounds too complicated, read some of my free articles and watch the videos.

I’ve been teaching a wide range of growers, from subsistence farmers, backyard gardeners, and homesteaders, to commercial growers and academics. This has taught me how to explain the system in a way that is easy to understand.

On this website, there are resources, including a lot of free material. More will be added soon. I am finishing a step-by-step book on how to start practicing KNF. I have several series of manuals in process, including everything you need to know about IMO and FPJ (Fermented Plant Juice).

I have learned so much that I want to share. I need to get this information out. It does no good in my head. I want to share it with you.