A new study establishes that environmental damage caused by corn production results in 4,300 premature deaths annually in the United States, representing a monetized cost of $39 billion. Increased concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are driven by emissions of ammonia — a PM2.5 precursor — that result from nitrogen fertilizer use. Average health damages from reduced air quality are $3.07 per bushel (56.5 lbs.) of corn, which is 62 percent of the $4.95 per bushel average corn market price of the last decade.This paper also estimates life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of corn production, finding total climate change damages of $4.9 billion, or $0.38 per bushel of corn.
Not only are ammonia emissions from fertilizer damaging to human health, they are also a waste of money for farmers because they are not getting the benefit of the nitrogen that they’re paying for.
— source cfans.umn.edu | Apr 1, 2019