a climate-friendly and sustainable food production system. Most policy and regulatory approaches to address these issues focus on pivoting agricultural practices towards sustainable or regenerative agricultural practices: these use less synthetic fertilizers, better soil management (for example no-till agriculture) and more organic fertilizers. Production The production of synthetic, or inorganic, fertilizers requires prepared chemicals, whereas organic fertilizers are derived from the organic processes of plants and animals in biological processes using biochemicals. Nitrogen fertilizers Nitrogen fertilizers are made from ammonia (NH3) produced by the Haber–Bosch process. In this energy-intensive process, natural gas (CH4) usually supplies the hydrogen, and the nitrogen (N2) is derived from the air. This ammonia is used as a feedstock for all other nitrogen fertilizers, such as anhydrous ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) and urea (CO(NH2)2). Deposits of sodium nitrate (NaNO3) (Chilean saltpeter) are also found in the Atacama desert in Chile and was one of the original (1830) nitrogen-rich fertilizers used. It is still mined for fertilizer. Nitrates are also produced from ammonia by the Ostwald process. Phosphate fertilizers Phosphate fertilizers are obtained by extraction from phosphate rock, which contains two principal phosphorus-containing minerals, fluorapatite Ca5(PO4)3F (CFA) and hydroxyapatite Ca5(PO4)3OH. These minerals are converted into water-soluble phosphate salts by treatment with sulfuric (H2SO4) or phosphoric acids (H3PO4). The large production of sulfuric acid is primarily motivated by this application. In the nitrophosphate process or Odda process (invented in 1927), phosphate rock with up to a 20% phosphorus (P) content is dissolved with nitric acid (HNO3) to produce a mixture of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and calcium nitrate (Ca(NO3)2). This mixture can be combined with a potassium fertilizer to produce a compound fertilizer with the three macronutrients N, P and K in easily dissolved form. Potassium fertilizers Potash is a mixture of potassium minerals used to make potassium (chemical symbol: K) fertilizers. Potash is soluble in water, so the main effort in producing this nutrient from the ore involves some purification steps; e.g., to remove sodium chloride (NaCl) (common salt). Sometimes potash is referred to as K2O, as a matter of convenience to those describing the potassium content. In fact, potash fertilizers are usually potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, potassium carbonate, or potassium nitrate. NPK fertilizers There are four major routes for manufacturing NPK fertilizers (named for their main ingredients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)): steam granulation, chemical granulation, compaction, bulk blending. The first three processes are used to