There was even a celebrity chef promoting his recipe for nettle soup on Radio 4’s Today programme!īurning fossil fuels and intensive farming practices have lead to the buildup of pools of reactive nitrogen in the atmosphere. Taking this on board, Plantlife and the Plant Link UK network published the report ‘We need to talk about nitrogen’ in March which threw the issue into the news headlines – and into the mix of debates around air quality, climate change, farming practices and wildlife protection. As the workshop report shows, one of the key recommendations focused on translating decades of scientific research into greater public awareness and political action. In January 2017, the BES Plants-Soils-Ecosystems SIG, in collaboration with the charity Plantlife, brought together stakeholders from government agencies, research institutes, farming bodies and NGOs to look at ways to tackle this. While greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution are widely recognised environmental problems, fewer people are aware of the impact of nitrogen in air pollution (or atmospheric nitrogen deposition) on fungi, plants, soils and ecosystems. Plantlife and PSE’s workshop on nitrogen deposition raises the profile of this forgotten issue

Jenny Hawley, Senior Policy Officer at Plantlife, has kindly written a blog post for us about the We need to talk about Nitrogen policy workshop.īy Jenny Hawley, Senior Policy Officer, Plantlife

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