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The widespread use of inexpensive chemical fertilizer, coupled with market reforms, helped power an agricultural explosion here that had already occurred in other parts of the world. Yields of rice and corn rose, and diets grew richer.
Now those gains are threatened in many countries by spot shortages and soaring prices for fertilizer, the most essential ingredient of modern agriculture.
Chemical nitrogen was essential for the nitric acid used in explosives. And industrial alcohol--during peacetime used in antifreeze, foods, paints, tetraethyl lead, plastics and film--was essential in war for smokeless powder, chemical warfare gases, and particularly synthetic rubber.
Originally posted by biggie smalls
We needed a large surplus to feed our troops during wartime, so we transferred chemical weapons into our fertilizers. Now we are paying the price with decreased yields, poor croplands, and starving people.
If farmers had stuck with small-scale organic farming methods instead of taking the easy way out by using nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides, and corporate share-cropping, maybe we wouldn't be in such a mess now.
The burden also lies on the people in general. There simply aren't enough farmers to support a population of almost 7 billion people. EVERYONE should grow something, whether its their own herbs or their food staple. We all need to be helping ease the food shortage, and that doesn't mean relying on conventional agriculture.
As I've said in other threads, biocides and chemical fertilizers are not going to be around forever, but natural fertilizers and natural pesticides will.