Herbicides have a long history of negative consequences. Glyphosate and paraquat, among other pollutants, are extremely harmful to human health and the environment. These pollutants impair soil quality and destroy beneficial organisms such as pollinators. Furthermore, the widespread use of herbicides has resulted in weed resistance, making chemical management less effective.
Kenny Lee, co-founder and CEO of Aigen Robotics, is personally committed to reducing pesticide use. Lee, a glyphosate-related non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor, has collected $19 million for his startup to produce solar-powered weeding robots. “We’re on a personal mission,” Lee says, emphasizing their dedication to sustainable agriculture.
Weeds aren’t a problem, but typically the fertilizers for hydro are petroleum based, and therefore not sustainable.
Isn’t this the case for most of the ammonia based fertilizer used in all types of farming?
Yes it is. Haber-Bosch process is where all our ammonia comes from, and it’s fed via petrochemical stocks. No oil = no food.
HB really requires hydrogen, which typically comes from fossil fuels. However, with some policy changes the hydrogen for ammonia production could come from GHG free sources instead.
You are right. However, with policy changes, we also need a tenable plan for a hydrogen economy that is physically and economically possible. The tech to produce and handle hydrogen on that scale does not exist, and much like carbon capture and storage, they are likely to remain a pipe dream; numbers don’t add up. We’ve spent a century building infrastructure that has no use other than extracting and processing fossil fuels. That we have enough resources to make the transition to a clean economy is in serious doubt at this time.
It does make a nice talking point to make everyone feel better about technology saving us from ourselves in the future, though. It’s certainly much more palatable than talking about the overshoot of the human population.