Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today announced a collaboration with Campbell Soup Company and its subsidiary, Pepperidge Farm, Incorporated, to improve water quality and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by optimizing fertilizer use and improving soil conservation in the company’s wheat sourcing areas.

Fertilizer is essential for growing crops, but on average 50 percent of fertilizer applied is not absorbed by plants. The leftover fertilizer can run off fields and pollute waterways, contaminate drinking water supplies, and contribute to ocean dead zones that kill aquatic species. Excess nitrogen fertilizer runoff also emits nitrous oxide, a GHG 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Agriculture is responsible for 10 percent of the nation’s GHG emissions, but using fertilizer more efficiently reduces emissions and improves water quality, without sacrificing yields or profits.

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