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The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

modernfarmer.com

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Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#101

Post by mattpallissard »

sleton38234234 wrote: post #86
ilostmyshoes wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they don't seem to be talking about is learning from indigenous farming communities who use things like diversity in crops and rotation to keep soil quality high. These problems were solved decades ago, just not by the industrial farming community

Crop diversity is great. And you also need lots of organic matter to go on top of the soil: to build life in the soil. that's much better than trying to duct tape the matter with fertilizer.

> Crop diversity is great.

Crop rotation has been standard practice my entire life. One of the many kickers though is soybeans are the fallback crop for really wet springs. Many crops need to be planted by a certain date or the growing season will be too short. Soybeans can "make up for lost time", so to speak. If your first planting gets flooded, or if it's too wet to get any crop in, you can wait until it's dry and toss in some soy to recoup some of the cost. Thing is soybeans use a lot of nitrogen.

> And you also need lots of organic matter

Manure spreaders are still a thing.

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#102

Post by debacle »

ch4s3 wrote: post #10
debacle wrote: post #7

Recently, I have seen a short-sighted push to allow human waste to fertilize crops. That is absolutely 100% not the solution to anything for probably a dozen very good reasons. The impact of this kind of "recycling" is well studied and the negatives outweigh the positives.

Pharmaceutical contamination seems like the biggest problem, but I guess heating to kill pathogens makes the energy math unfavorable as well.

You can kill the pathogens through curing the compost, but that takes time, space, and equipment. In the meantime you'd be dealing with hazardous waste.

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#104

Post by debacle »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #39
afarrell wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably the war in Ukraine was influenced by the unrest against Lukanhesko after his poor handling of covid-19...and by Russians thinking that was yet another example of NATO attacks against their security.

This war has one primary cause: Putin. Anything else is a very distant secondary. COVID caused Putin to isolate and become paranoid, but it's still Putin's fault, not COVID's.

> COVID caused Putin to isolate and become paranoid, but it's still Putin's fault

I don't see anyone still claiming this besides neocon warhawks, and they don't really have a source besides other neocon warhawks.

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#105

Post by ajmurmann »

Waterluvian wrote: post #2

Few things have a single cause, but I think it's not outlandish to hypothesize that potential pending famines could be driven by a fertilizer shortage, driven by Russia's invasion and global economic issues, driven by the pandemic. Maybe this is obvious to those smarter than I, but I'm beginning to have a sinking sense that direct deaths by SARS-COV2 will be a shockingly small minority of total deaths caused by the p…

Well, 20.8% of goal potash production comes from Russia and another 18% from Belarus. It's a key ingredients in making fertilizer. There is your single cause.

Source: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/minerals-minin...

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#106

Post by kragen »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #93
danuker wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is my thinking dangerous? Not allowing profit is dangerous, because it won't attract suppliers. High prices might prompt some people elsewhere to reduce their consumption, in favor of ones more in need. You can address some of the future price uncertainties with a futures market. That way, you can see what the price you'll get in 7 months' time, and decide what you should plant. But if a place has no means of gro…

> High prices might prompt some people elsewhere to reduce their consumption By dying. There is a famine in madagascar right now.v > in favor of ones more in need. Do you need 1 kg of bacon more than a poor family in madagascar needs 10kg of wheat that was used to feed your bacon? > How is my thinking dangerous? Because men than need to feed their children might grab torches and pitchforks Free market does not store…

there is a famine in madagascar right now because the government imposed price ceilings on rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil, gas and cement last april

http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=662033449&Coun...

predictably this resulted in widespread food shortages

by contrast, all other poor countries are not experiencing famines right now

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#107

Post by debacle »

iceTA wrote: post #75

Two things. 1. I hate how everything has to have a financialised solution: To achieve this, the report suggests “mobilizing international financial support” and implementing tools such as “fertilizer contract swaps” to keep farmer costs manageable. 2. I read articles like this and wonder, will the world ditch meat, or will will the richer countries continue to eat ridiculous amounts of the stuff, using up all the lan…

Regenerative agriculture relies on poultry and livestock to restore the topsoil layer.

Meat isn't going away. In fact, we may wind up eating more, not less, of it, over time.

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#108

Post by saiya-jin »

afarrell wrote: post #34
bryanlarsen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does COVID have to do with this? The fertilizer shortage is caused by the war in Ukraine. This war will cause more deaths indirectly than it does directly, just like almost all large wars.

Arguably the war in Ukraine was influenced by the unrest against Lukanhesko after his poor handling of covid-19...and by Russians thinking that was yet another example of NATO attacks against their security.

That's... not true in any sense. Reasons are quite simple and have been explained ad nausea.

Greed of Putin while being detached from reality due to covid fears and paranoia, overconfidence in his army destroyed by his own and his friends corruption, underestimating Ukraine's resolve. He and his men really thought they could conquer Kyiv in few days.

He was trying war land grab for 8 years already and thought he could get big part if not whole country permanently.

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#109

Post by Scoundreller »

randomdata wrote: post #99
ilostmyshoes wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they don't seem to be talking about is learning from indigenous farming communities who use things like diversity in crops and rotation to keep soil quality high. These problems were solved decades ago, just not by the industrial farming community

We do. Perhaps you may not recognize our lingo. For example, around here we humorously refer to wheat as 'poverty grass' because there is no money in growing it but recognize it as a necessity to keep in the rotation for the ecological health benefits it provides.

There’s money in growing it, but usually where nothing else profitably grows, which is a lot of places.

Hugely mechanized though which makes it work when you have enough crop land. But yeah, $/hectare yield is going to be low.

Re: The fertilizer shortage will persist in 2023

#110

Post by Tyrannosaur »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #92
seiferteric wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's water soluble.

Sure, but why is it pulled sideways and not down, and why does it move toward the river of all directions it could move?

For exactly the same reason the river exists in the first place. Why does the water flow to the ocean and not just sink into the ground?
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