The founder of the online publication Flagship is stepping down as its lead writer after four years. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, a significant story was the disruption to fossil fuel supplies that led to increased fertilizer prices, which are crucial for global food production - about 50% of nitrogen in food comes from fertilizer. The publication has consistently prioritized covering important but often overlooked stories, such as the impact of fertilizer shortages, over more sensational or trendy topics like AI. In recent years, Flagship has also focused on the growing influence and potential risks of AI technology.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-10,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
The news organization Semafor was founded during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late 2022, and its origin story is tied to fertilizer prices. The founders believed that a key but underreported aspect of the war was how it would disrupt fossil fuel supplies, leading to increased fertilizer costs. Without 50% of the nitrogen in food coming from fertilizers, the global population would face widespread starvation. Semafor's focus on this story was meant to highlight its importance and relevance to readers' lives.
Written for “Soil Decontamination Efforts” on 2026-09-10,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted
verbatim and was checked against the article text before being
stored, so you can find it in the original.
Leaning score +0.85 for article 7627 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-09-10
The origin story of Flagship runs through fertilizer.
asserted
story → run → fertilizer
When we were writing our pre-release trial editions in late 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was still relatively recent.
asserted
invasion → write → Ukraine
And an underreported — we felt — story was that the disruption to fossil fuel supplies would drive up fertilizer prices.
asserted
disruption → feel → prices
Without fertilizer, much of the world’s population would starve; about 50% of the nitrogen in our food comes from it.
asserted
% → starve → it
To quote the economist Howard T Odum, writing in 1971, “Industrial man no longer eats potatoes made from solar energy; now he eats potatoes partly made of oil.
asserted
he → quote → oil
Fertilizer was not the sexiest or most obvious story you could tell about Ukraine.
uncertain
you → tell → Ukraine
But it was among the most important, in some sense of that word: It would affect the lives of millions.
asserted
It → affect → millions
The point of Flagship has always been to provide you with what is most consequential, in our interconnected world.
asserted
what → provide → world
Sometimes that means the global impact of a story; sometimes it means the story’s relevance to readers’ ability to make decisions.
asserted
it → mean → decisions
(And, OK, sometimes we just put in things we think are cool.
asserted
we → put → things
But mostly, it’s the important stuff.)
asserted
it → ’ → ?
Fertilizer still matters, four years on; I think we’ve written about it 14 times this summer alone.
asserted
we → matter → it
It remains unsexy but relevant.
asserted
It → remain → ?
But the world has changed enormously in other ways.
asserted
world → change → ways
It is remarkable to think that when we launched, AI as we know it now was a niche technology: ChatGPT’s release was six weeks in the future, and image generators like DALL-E were novelties.
asserted
generators → think → E
Early on we thought it would be a big deal, and had ChatGPT write a guest column for Flagship in Dec. 2022.
asserted
ChatGPT → think → Dec.
AI runs weapons systems, solves famous mathematical conjectures, designs biological experiments; the companies that make it (and the chips that it runs on) have become trillion-dollar behemoths.
asserted
it → run → that
It plausibly could kill us all.
uncertain
It → kill → us
We’ve spent four years trying to work out what will matter to you; sometimes that has meant ignoring stories that everyone else is chasing while focusing on things no one else seems to care about.
asserted
one → spend → things
All the while, we have trusted that you, our readers, demand this complexity — that you want to know what is tangible, not what is trivial.
asserted
what → trust → complexity
This is my last day as Flagship’s lead writer; I am extraordinarily proud of what we’ve built.
asserted
we → build → what
The briefing will no doubt improve without me holding it back, but you can be sure it will continue to concentrate on what matters.
asserted
what → improve → it
