FertiCycle Coordinator expertise presented at the European Commission

By Lars Stoumann Jensen

The PI and coordinator of FertiCycle, Professor Lars Stoumann Jensen was recently invited by the European Commission (EC) to speak to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) as an expert at a Public Hearing on "Reducing impacts of fertilisers from production to end-use - increasing circularity in agriculture" (program and presentations available on link).  

The background for the hearing was the great concern in the EC about the repercussions of the Ukraine war and associated energy crisis on the fertiliser supply and food security in Europe, as expressed in their “Communication on ensuring availability and affordability of fertilisers” from 9 Nov 2022.

The hearing included presentations from four experts from industry and academia, and covered both the future of fertilisers, including conventional mineral fertilisers and new fertilisers based on recycled nutrients from organic waste, and improved circularity at the farm level, including technologies for recovery and better use of manure nutrients.

Lars' presentation was titled “Developing new bio-based fertilisers from organic waste upcycling for optimal use in agriculture” and in his own words, "took departure in my experiences from several EU projects, including FertiCycle”.. 

The four presentations stirred significant debate with strong viewpoints from the committee members and other Members of European Parliament, and Lars was challenged with a range of questions from the commitee: How much subsidy is needed for processing of nutrient-rich waste to stimulate sufficient recycling into biobased fertilisers? These new technologies will help us in the future – but what can be done to solve the fertiliser crisis right now? How can we remove barriers for enhancing recycling of food waste and sewage sludge – and are there trade-offs and risks involved? Should we not rather promote more regenerative agriculture and enhance legumes in crop rotations to substitute the mineral nitrogen fertiliser industry? How do we best protect European soil quality in the lieu of this fertiliser crisis?

The hearing and debate clearly indicates that the fertiliser supply crisis is rising high on the European agenda – and the uncertainty of the situation in the coming year or two is even more worrying. We therefore believe that FertiCycle is well suited and timely to address these challenges and we expect we will be able to provide some useful solutions.