This issue of Fertiliser Update commemorates the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Society. As such, we thought that it would be appropriate for this issue to look both backwards at the history of the industry and the Society, and forwards in time, by considering issues that both the Society and our industry face.

Accordingly  the  first  article  combines information  from  past  IFS  Proceedings  to  provide an overview of the early development of the  modern  fertiliser  industry  and  the technologies that it uses, up until 1995.

The next article is a summary of IFS Proceedings 465  on  Phosphorus,  Potassium  and  Sulphur Cycles  in  Agricultural  Soils,  one  of  the  more noteworthy agronomic ones in our archive.

The  third  article extracts  key  points  from Proceedings 687 and 751, Assessing the Carbon

Footprint of Fertilisers at Production and Full Life Cycle, one of the highest profile issues facing the industry today.

The fourth article is a commentary written by Society  Member  Debby  van  Rotterdam, examining some of the practical issues associated with the recent paper ‘What is a plant nutrient? Changing  definitions  to  advance  science  and innovation in plant nutrition’, Brown et al, 2021.

The final article summarises the findings from research  that  the  Society  carried  out  among Members this year, and what these imply for how the Society should develop in the future.