Funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative, The Price of Plenty teamed up undergraduate student journalists from the University of Florida and the University of Missouri to report on fertilizer and its consequences from the ground up. Eighteen students spent five months reporting, from Florida’s “Bone Valley” where 8-million-pound earth movers strip-mine phosphate; from agrichemical plants along the Mississippi River; from farm fields and legislative hallways; from communities stuck next door to the industry; and from the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone,” where fertilizer runoff threatens one of the world’s most productive fisheries.
The student journalists found that the industry wields outsized political power; that farmers have little incentive to use less; and that nutrient pollution persists despite exhaustive science linking fertilizer to toxic algae outbreaks and other problems. They also found that while government and industry research funding pours into fertilizer application and future markets such as hydrogen power, there is a dearth of research on the human health risks associated with fertilizer production – from Florida’s reclaimed phosphate lands to Louisiana’s chemical plants.
The project’s 18, in-depth stories also reported on timely issues such as soaring fertilizer costs; the 2023 Farm Bill; and the hunt for rare earth elements in Florida’s phosphate pits. The students dug deep into the climate crisis, analyzing the industry’s fossil fuel emissions and questioning the vulnerability of its mines, plants and huge waste mountains called gypstacks to extreme rains and hurricanes.
They investigated their own universities—and whether the politically powerful fertilizer industry has too much control over public research agendas.
They also found promising signs of action and change. An upswing in regenerative farming practices is helping to restore polluted waterways and fight climate change. Fenceline communities next door to the industry are becoming increasingly organized in pursuit of environmental justice. The student journalists also reported on solutions that rethink food production and the industry’s waste.
This ambitious project took on so many dense and intertwined topics: science, labor, racial inequity, exploitation of humans and natural environs. We were impressed by the scope of the project and also how the multimedia narrative came together to explain a very, very complex topic. This was a great example of student journalists from two schools who combined efforts to cover a hyper local issue that has global impact.
