Until a German chemist named Fritz Haber figured out how to turn this trick in 1909, all the usable nitrogen on earth had at one time been fixed [combined with other elements] by soil bacteria living on the roots of leguminous plants (such as peas or alfalfa or locust trees) or, less commonly, by the shock of electrical lightening, which can break nitrogen bonds in the air, releasing a light rain of fertility.
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[Vaclav Smil calls this] the most important invention of the twentieth century. He estimates that two of every five humans on earth today would not be alive if not for Fritz Haber's invention.
M. Pollan, The omnivore's dilemma (2006), 42-43
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