Shortages Threaten Farmers' Key Tool: Fertilizer

Shortages Threaten Farmers' Key Tool: Fertilizer

biz.yahoo.com

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.

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[edit on 4/30/2008 by biggie smalls]

We shouldn't be using nitrogen-based chemical fertilizers to grow our food in the first place. A world war 2 surplus of nitrogen lead them to be used in food production.

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.

source

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.

biz.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

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.

Exactly how are we paying the price? How have yields decreased? Why is the crop land poor? How are we 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.

Back when families had 40 acres and a mule, all they did is just survive and feed their family. They had very little left over to sell or trade for clothes and other luxuries.

Using fertilizers and pesticides have enabled fewer farmers to feed many more people. I doubt very seriously that you could get many farmers to go back and use a mule instead of the tractors much less any city people. That is why so many people left the farm and went to the city to find work. Farming is still a hard and dirty job and was even more so back then.

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.

There is enough farmers to feed this country at least. Back when I was growing produce, a lot of what I grew went to waste. The biggest problem was low prices, at times I would not even harvest the crops because the prices would be so low that you couldn't pay the harvest cost. If you want to make a farmer mad, just take him to a grocery store. There is a HUGE difference between what we get paid and the price in the store. It is a good idea to plant a garden. This is the first year that we have grown a garden in maybe ten years.

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.

Pesticides and chemical fertilizers will be around, but maybe not at an affordable price. Natural fertilizers and pesticides are great if they are available. There have been a lot of chicken houses put up in my area in the last few years, so there is some chicken fertilizer available. It goes very quickly. Them chickens can't crap enough to meet the demand.