As well as bringing devastation to Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s war risks tipping millions of people around the world into hunger.

Food security is one of the most prevalent challenges the modern world is facing.

Think the global fertilizer shortage is someone else’s problem? Take a look in the mirror. If you are reading this in North America, Europe, Latin America, or Asia, chances are that the bundle of amino acids staring back at you is alive today because of chemical fertilizers.

Announced in 2018, researchers from University of California, Davis, the University of Wisconsin and Mars Inc., continue to study a tropical variety of corn from Mexico that can fix atmospheric nitrogen using a mucus-like gel and bacteria from what looks like brace roots along the stalk. 

Why is fertilizer so expensive? Here are the 6 main factors that affect the cost of fertilizer — and how we mitigate them.