SOLVING THE FOOD CRISIS WITH SUBSTRATE

FEARS are mounting this week over the availability and affordability of artificial fertilizers needed to produce enough sustenance for the planet.

A third of global nitrogen-based fertilizer originates from The Middle East [1], and farmers depend on it to produce a sixth of the world’s food. [2] [3]

But, for twelve weeks, almost none – including NPK mixes, and the urea and ammonia needed to make them – has departed the Gulf region due to conflict. 

Twenty percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas, used to produce fertilizer elsewhere, is also trapped. [4] [5]

And China, the world’s other fertilizer hub, has written emergency legislation to protect its farmers and agriculture sector – restricting exports of nitrogen-potassium and phosphate fertilizers, and sulfuric acid, until further notice. [6] [7]

The consequence of these developments for the world is the prospect of an unprecedented food crisis.

International bodies, agricultural leaders and economists have sounded the alarm about impending and catastrophic shortages of fertilizer and food. [8]

UN director Jorge Moreira da Silva said this month of the developing emergency: “We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation.”

Secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce John Denton explained: “Everyone thinks about oil and gas, but fertilizer is actually what will cause the biggest human suffering. You’re not seeing the human consequences of it yet. This starts to become visible in about three months.”

The World Bank predicts average global fertilizer prices will rise by more than 30 percent in 2026, but the price of urea has already jumped 50 percent since March [9]. In Canada, some fertilizer prices have risen by 40 percent. [10]

India, the world’s largest rice producer and second-biggest wheat grower, recently scrambled to pay twice the usual market price for a record amount of urea in one tender. But in the bread baskets of poorer Africa, Asia and Latin America, fertilizer is now unobtainable or ruinously expensive. [11]

The American Farm Bureau Federation recently reported that seven out of ten US farmers are unable to afford all the fertilizer they need [12]. So, the US Department of Agriculture is forecasting the country’s smallest wheat crop since 1919 [13].

Global food shortages and sky-high food prices seem inevitable. Famine, disease and civil unrest seem possible. And humanity’s addiction to fossil fuel-based fertilizers is the root cause.

As some leaders seek recourse for impending scarcity, the long game for food security is perhaps best played out in fields turned over to regenerative agriculture.

Clearly, growers can no longer rely on perennially steeping sapped soils in artificial fertilizers to feed the world. That chink in the chain of our food supplies has now been exposed for placing millions in peril. 

A more sustainable form of farming is needed. Sowing greater resilience into farmland with remedial substrates and organic fertilizers – to rebuild soil structures and recharge soil health – is the far-sighted fix for our food security. [14]

Speaking in Rome this month, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu emphasized reduced dependence on fossil fuel-based fertilizers. 

He urged nations attending its “Supporting Food Security and Access to Fertilizers” conference to invest in sustainable agriculture and innovative fertilizer technologies.

Nestlé Group Head for Sustainable Agriculture Pascal Chapot also said this month: “Regenerative agriculture is increasingly being recognized not only as an environmental solution, but as a core resilience strategy for agricultural systems and supply chains. The only way for farmers to mitigate agricultural volatility caused by fertilizer shocks is to improve soil performance permanently.”

Farmers employing regenerative agriculture inevitably use much lower volumes of chemical fertilizer, in more precise ways. Porous, carbon-rich substrates integrated into soils between crop cycles secure strong crop yields. [15] [16]

Ones made from wildfire deadwood offer model nutrient levels and ideal pH balance. They provide capacious water retention, resuscitating soil aeration and optimal physical structure for rapid root development and relentless plant growth. [17]

Substrates made from fire-damaged timber are an ideal growing medium for almost all agricultural produce. And, globally, 400 million hectares of forest roasts in wildfires every year.

Power Wood Energy manufactures remedial soil substrate SuSo® from wildfire-damaged aspen deadwood, harvested in Canadian forests.

Mineral-dense SuSo® substrate is generated using NATO-approved advanced transformation technology that shreds, dehydrates and pasteurizes wildfire wood chip into carbon-heavy substrate.

The ground-breaking rapid decomposition process, which occurs in a Converter® AG2000 - technology made by Italian conversion engineering experts Ompeco and adapted by UK-based X-MET to process agricultural and forestry waste.

The cutting-edge on-site machinery recovers nutrients from the tree bases and root systems of aspen deadwood that would otherwise be lost through natural waste. 

Lab tests by leading science group Cawood show the process' resulting substrate SuSo® has the full spectrum of macro and micro nutrients needed for large crop harvests.

Rich in nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, copper, zinc, iron and manganese, it excels in producing fruit, vegetables, herbs and cereals with high disease resistance.

When integrated into arable soils between crop rotations, each percentage increase of carbon content locks in a further 168,000 liters of water per hectare – reducing run off and irrigation costs.

Waste wildfire wood’s diversion to agriculture also prevents decomposition greenhouse gases reaching Earth’s atmosphere from forests. 

Power Wood Energy’s non-executive director Karen Wordsworth is also CEO of X-MET, worldwide exlusive agents for Ompeco's technology. 

Karen described Power Wood Energy’s finished SuSo® substrate product as “a powerfully curative, carbon-rich soil enhancer with an abundance of nutrients needed for augmented crop growth.”

The sustainability expert said: “SuSo® is made from the sap and heart wood of ancient aspen trees that have baked in the heat of Canadian wildfires before being harvested.

“As a result, SuSo®’s carbon content is extremely high and, once sown into soils as a remedial substrate, it promotes robust, vigorous, disease-free farm crops.

“SuSo® also provides mechanical benefit to soils. It increases their moisture retention, locks in carbon and releases its nutrients slowly and consistently back into the land for stabilized high crop yields.

“It is an advanced fibrous compost that for regenerating soil vitality but it also  offers a potent replacement for artificial fertilizers that are at present hard to come by.”

[1] International Fertilizer Association. https://ifastat.org/

[2] We Forum. (2026, March 12). Another conflict, another reminder of the fragility of the world’s food supply. https://www.weforum.org/stories/geo-economics-and-politics/fertilizer-urea-middle-east-war-food-security

[3] Food and Agriculture Organizatoin of the United Nations. Inorganic Fertilizers 2002 - 2022. FAOSTAT ANALYTICAL BRIEF 90. https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c0e0bb8b-3a6f-4b04-b503-99542965b3d4/content

[4] US Energy Information Administration. World Oil Transit Chokepoints. Indepenedent Statistics and Analysis. https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/special-topics/world_oil_transit_Chokepoints

[5] Independent Energy Agency. The Middle East and Global Energy Markets. Key facts on the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas markets, and the IEA’s response. https://www.iea.org/topics/the-middle-east-and-global-energy-markets  

[6] Global Chemical Network. (2026, April 13). China to fully restrict sulfuric acid exports starting in May; global supply-chain restructuring accelerates. https://news.chemnet.com/news-4326.html

[7] UKrAgroConsult. (2026, October 16). China’s phosphate fertilizer exports collapse to near zero, worsening global supply shortages. https://ukragroconsult.com/en/news/chinas-phosphate-fertilizer-exports-collapse-to-near-zero-worsening-global-supply-shortages/

[8] The Food Institute. (2026, April 17). FAO Warns of Global Agrifood Catastrophe. https://foodinstitute.com/focus/fao-warns-of-global-agrifood-catastrophe/

[9] Economist Enterprise. (2026, August 24) Anushri Ganariwala. Beyond the farm gate: lessons from the 2026 fertiliser shock. https://insights.economistenterprise.com/energy-environment/beyond-the-farm-gate-lessons-from-the-2026-fertiliser-shock

[10] TD Economics. (2026, May 11) The Hidden Food Inflation Risk from the Strait of Hormuz Disruption. https://economics.td.com/ca-food-inflation-risk-strait-hormuz-disruption

[11] Reuters. (2026, April 14). Global fertilizer costs surge amid export curbs and supply chain bottlenecks. Reuters Commodities News. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/global-fertilizer-costs-surge-supply-bottlenecks-2026-04-14/

[12] Agro Information News. (2026, April 23) Juan Manuel Garro. 70% of U.S. farmers can’t afford fertilizer, and it’s getting worse. https://agroinformacion.com/en/marketseconomics/70-of-u-s-farmers-cant-afford-fertilizer-and-its-getting-worse/

 [13] Brownfield Agricultural News. (2026, March 31). John Perkins. USDA projecting lowest U.S. wheat acreage in more than a century. https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/usda-projecting-lowest-u-s-wheat-acreage-in-more-than-a-century/

[14] Financial Times. (2026, March 11). Food giants turn to regenerative farming as fertilizer volatility bites. Financial Times Agriculture & Food. https://www.ft.com/content/food-giants-regenerative-farming-fertilizer-shocks-2026

[15] Earth.org. (2025, July 10). Regenerative agriculture goes mainstream: Trends and impacts on synthetic input reduction. Earth.org Sustainability Insights. https://earth.org/regenerative-agriculture-trends-and-impacts/

[16] Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). (2025, October 12). Soil organic carbon and sustainable soil management: Options for global food security. UN FAO Publications. https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc9821en

[17] EurekAlert!. (2026, April 30). Biochar and organic fertilizer reshape soil microbes to improve crop resilience. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126551