From journal pages to governance pathways: Envisioning a just nitrogen future
Nitrogen, at face value, is simply an atom. The most abundant element in earth’s atmosphere and one essential to all life. Its balance is delicate, and when disrupted, consequences ripple everywhere. Human activity—particularly through synthetic fertilizers, industrial agriculture, and fossil fuel combustion—has pushed the nitrogen cycle far out of equilibrium. These flows are not random; they are structured by capitalist and neocolonial systems that concentrate fertilizer production in a handful of corporations, drive intensive monocultures to feed global markets, and externalize the ecological costs onto marginalized communities and ecosystems. The result is an oversupply of nitrogen that cascades into polluted air and water, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and ecosystems under strain.
These realities are the reason our International Nitrogen Network (iN-Net) exists. Its mission is clear: science must meet policy, and effective governance is needed to prioritize equity in knowledge translation. Recent UN resolutions have set ambitious goals, such as halving nitrogen waste by 2030. iN-Net was created to help deliver on these commitments. The network convenes nine leading international partner organizations with decades of experience in nitrogen research and policy, supported by three interdisciplinary working groups—each with over 30 scholars and professionals from academia, non-profits, and the private sector, as well as research fellows (including Valerie Renee Fajardo and Yushu Xia from the Climate and Data working groups, whose insights and collaboration have been deeply meaningful thus far). Policy fellows work closely with governance-focused partners to translate evidence into action. What makes iN-Net distinctive is its commitment to inclusivity and justice: rather than treating nitrogen solely as a technical challenge, it centers equity, cross-sectoral collaboration, and shared responsibility across regions and disciplines.
Responding to the nitrogen challenge is not only a technical or policy task; it also requires imagination. Meeting global goals means envisioning governance structures, relationships, and futures that do not yet exist. For me, journaling has become one way to practice this kind of imaginative work. For years, I’ve been an avid journaler. Journaling teaches me to pay better attention to all things static, moving, external, internal. Recently, I journaled to an essay prompt written by Jasper Young Bear in a metamorphose-inducing anthology, The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad. Young Bear prompted: “Imagine you are the center of the universe…Imagine that your power and your prayers have no limit. Imagine all things…are affected by your prayer. What would you change? What is your prayer?
That prompt reminded me that imagination can be a kind of alchemy—transforming the raw material of reflection into visions of new worlds, relationships, and responsibilities.
In addition to writing about abolishing avarice, ending war and violence, eradicating hunger and thirst, and ensuring free access to education and healthcare, I wrote about the right of every individual to thrive, pivot, and reach their potential. I dreamed of systems rooted in true health equity and environmental justice, supported by robust, well-funded public health and education worldwide. And I found myself, too, writing about the food system—and about nitrogen. My prayer was that the nitrogen cycle follows only nature’s rhythms, not the edicts of agrochemical corporations or industrial farming systems built to maximize profit at the expense of people and ecosystems. That there may be a glorious lack of excess nitrogen. That nowhere in sight would there be nitrogen pollution, toxic nitrogen fertilizers dotting farms, animals in cages being pumped with excess nitrogen in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). That the nitrogen cycle would be restored into balance, with humans actively stewarding the soil in ways aligned with nature’s cycles—composting, recycling waste, and caring for animals and land as partners—rather than disrupting its fulcrum through extractive, industrial practices.
This, in my mind, is the heart of nitrogen governance.
For the past few months, I’ve had the deep honor of serving as a research fellow with iN-Net’s Governance working group, collaborating with the inimitable working group lead, William San Martín, to strategize ways to alchemize: to transform collective ideas and energies into something new, actionable, and greater than the sum of its parts. We’ve asked ourselves, How do we ensure the 30+ working group members across the globe feel included, heard, and valued? How do we foster critical discussions permeated with a drive toward action, rather than stalling at identifying gaps? How do we harness the brilliance of members’ ideas and synergies to create outputs that are accessible to communities, policymakers, and practitioners beyond the group itself (Figure 1)?
These questions are not rhetorical—they have been guiding principles. Answering them is a community-engaged work-in-progress—one conducted hand-in-hand with working group members, as they are the ones closest to nitrogen governance challenges in their communities. To facilitate this work-in-progress, William and I have developed pre-meeting surveys, held brainstorming sessions, and hosted two energizing working group meetings so far. We built synchronous and asynchronous ways to contribute, ensuring equitable participation across time zones and communication styles. Members highlighted both their hopes and their concerns: the desire for collaboration and policy influence, alongside challenges of maintaining momentum, bridging science–policy gaps, and respecting capacity constraints.
From this process, we drafted a concept note for a commentary on nitrogen governance and established five sub-groups, each led by stellar volunteer co-leads and focused on the following key thematic areas:
Historical trajectories and paradigm shifts in nitrogen governance
Critical gaps in nitrogen governance research and practice
A transformative vision for nitrogen governance
Pathways and key steps to advance a systems-oriented transformation of nitrogen governance
Outcomes and strategic outputs across the above themes
These efforts represent the first steps in a larger journey—a way to crystallize our diagnosis and articulate a vision to scientific and policy communities. They are not the full action plan, but rather an initial drawing of orbits for our shared humanity and the first words of our collective imagination toward equitable, sustainable nitrogen governance.
All of this work ties back to a prompt William and I posed before our first meeting, echoing Young Bear’s original question: “If you were to imagine an ideal future, how would you envision the governance of nitrogen?”
My favorite moment so far has been both privately reading working group members’ responses and then reflecting on these nitrogen futures together as a group—critically assessing the current nitrogen landscape and daring to dream up pathways toward a more just and equitable system. These visions have reinforced that governance cannot be defined narrowly as regulation or policy alone; rather, it must be reimagined as a transformative process with justice and equity at its center. In this way, the working group members’ imaginative exercises are not just thought experiments—they are compass and catalyst, actively shaping our approach and generating ideas, strategies, and pathways that inform how iN-Net translates knowledge into action for more just and equitable nitrogen futures.
Please stay tuned to this space for more updates on Governance working group activities and hear soon from my fellow research fellows from the Climate and Data working groups. Together, we are not only envisioning a better nitrogen future—we are sowing seeds to make it happen. Or, as Young Bear invites us, we are daring to turn our prayers into real, tangible change.