The World Is Running Out of Fertilizer, Why?
According to Joseph Tainter, a renowned anthropologist, societies collapse when they display a profound loss of sociopolitical complexity.
But I would argue there’s another reason why societies collapse; it involves self-reliance—or a lack thereof. The more a country relies on another country for support, the greater the chance of collapse. Self-sustainability is the key to progress.
This might sound like an obvious point to make, but it’s one that many countries around the world have repeatedly failed to heed, including the United States.
Today, from South America to Southeast Asia, import dependency reigns supreme, with “dependency” being the operative word. Take Nepal, for example, a country I’ve spent plenty of time in (my fiancée comes from the capital, Kathmandu).
The Nepalese economy is heavily dependent on imports of basic materials, including coal briquettes and ovoids, as well as a whole host of other solid fuels. The Himalayan nation imports 73 percent of its coal. It also imports large amounts of construction materials and metals.
Agriculture provides livelihoods for 68 percent of Nepal’s 30 million citizens. The agriculture sector relies heavily on the use of chemical fertilizers imported from abroad. Right now, across the country, there exists a severe shortage of chemical fertilizers.
Economists have said this shortage could last for the rest of the year. This shortage will drive up the costs of food and will also result in a profound drop in crop yields, which will then drive prices up even more.
China is the primary exporter of chemical fertilizers to Nepal. However, China now appears rather reluctant to export any more chemical fertilizers to its supposed friend. Food security was already an issue before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) refused to sell any more chemical fertilizers to Nepal.
Worryingly, China is the primary exporter of chemical fertilizers not just to Nepal, but to almost all major countries around the world.
A Looming Crisis
In South America, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, high fertilizer prices are weighing heavily on the minds of farmers across the continent.
South American countries produce much of the world’s avocados, corn, and coffee. Lack of access to fertilizers is “making it much costlier to cultivate” these crops. In fact, it’s forcing many farmers to cease production entirely.
Of course, what’s happening in South America will have global consequences. As The Wall Street Journal piece states, expect grocery bills to “go up even more in 2022, following a year in which global food prices rose to decade highs.”
This uptick also looks likely to “exacerbate hunger—already acute in some parts of the world because of pandemic-linked job losses—and thwart efforts by politicians and central bankers to subdue inflation,” the piece reads.
According to credible reports, 70 percent of China’s fertilizer exports go to countries in South America.
A number of China’s biggest fertilizer companies have said they’re banning the export of phosphate—the key ingredient in commercial fertilizers—until at least June.
Why?
There are two reasons for this: to ensure the supply of fertilizers at home and to secure the country’s food production.
China is the largest producer of fertilizers in the world, producing more than the United States and India combined. Not surprisingly, China is also the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers. You might not like the way communist China does business (and you really shouldn’t), but the manner in which it controls the world’s supply of valuable goods is as impressive as it is terrifying.
Across Europe, farmers are also feeling the pinch. As Bloomberg writers Yuliya Fedorinova, Megan Durisin, and Veronika Gulyas recently reported, with farmers in countries such as France and Germany preparing to spread fertilizers on fields, “sky-high nutrient prices are leaving them little choice but to use less and try to pass on the cost down the food chain.”
What about the United States, one of the world’s top importers of fertilizers? Is there reason for concern? In short, yes. China is the biggest supplier of fertilizers to the United States—or at least it was before the CCP decided to curb exports.
As a Food Business News article states, in the United States, the word “fertilizer” has become synonymous with another word, “H-E-L-P,” “due to tight supplies and soaring prices.” Supplies, or lack thereof, will only serve to drive “crop production costs upward,” according to the authors.
The rise in production costs may also have a particularly negative effect on corn yields, as the crop has “high fertilizer (nitrogen) requirements and a high breakeven point.”
In the United States, corn is the primary feed grain, accounting “for more than 95 percent of total feed grain production and use,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Along with key producing countries such as China, curbing production and exports of fertilizers, sky-high freight costs and logistical issues have further compounded matters.
Things are bad. Very bad. The proverbial stuff has very much hit the fan. As the author Michael Syder recently said, “dramatically increased costs for fertilizer” are making it impossible for many U.S. farmers to make a living.
The United States, much like Nepal, is import-dependent. In fact, its dependency is comparable with a number of Third World countries. Do you know what other things you associate with Third World countries? Food shortages, crop crises, and widespread hunger.
The United States is already experiencing all three. Expect things to get considerably worse before they get better.
Self-sufficiency, the very thing the United States needs, is sorely lacking. It has been for years. Now, sadly, average Americans are the ones left to foot the bill and pay the heftiest of prices.
See more here: theepochtimes.com
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Alan Thorpe
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The idea of self-sufficiency has some appeal, but it is based on every country having all the materials it needs. This is not the case, but it also depends on the living standards that people will accept. History shows what happens when countries isolate themselves from trade. Both China and Japan went through periods of self-imposed isolation and the result was decline. Geography plays an important part. It determines what food a country can grow and the materials it has and therefore to enjoy the benefits of modern life we have to trade to get what we do not have but still need, or would like.
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Mark Tapley
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World agricultural production has gone up well over a hundred percent since the 1950’s due to better techniques and the widespread use of commercial fertilizers. If free trade were the rule instead of government controls, all resources would be subject to market forces that would result in the highest efficiency. Instead the dead hand of government insiders world wide burden the global economy and cause mismanagement and bad decisions.
The “Green Energy” scam is just one example of trillions of dollars of waste, inefficiency and legalized theft used to not only funnel money into the pockets of the insiders getting subsidies from the extremely wasteful corn-ethanol racket, to political insiders profiting off of the windmill and solar energy scam. Massive defense spending to stage phony weapons systems and contrived conflicts directing profits into the insider military “defense” industry is another one. and what about the trillions of miss allocation and waste caused by the world wide fake virus “pandemic” used to gain more control over the populace while damaging the free market economic effort everywhere, except forth billionaire insiders like Black Rock – Vanguard and their insider buddies. If government was put in its place all over the world so that it s only function was in very basic legitimate activities, there would be so much prosperity, all boats would be lifted.
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Howdy
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Isn’t there plenty of fertilizer flowing in the sewers of countries world-wide?
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Mark Tapley
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Hi Howdy:
The best natural fertilizer id chicken litter. Very potent (second only to bat litter) and is long lasting. Widely used for hay meadows and large applications. Human manure is sold in bags called Milorganite. Good to put in little cloth parts bags (3×4 in.) and hang around seedlings to repel deer. The problem with fertilizers is transportation costs. Chicken litter depending on moisture content is ap. 23 tons per tractor trailer load, so depending on distance to location can add up. Then you have the labor with skid steers and spreader trucks. Many times in the spring, locations are too wet for heavy spreaders, so litter has to be transported to staging area and unloaded, then loaded up again later. More money tied up and time lost. If one of these things Bogs down in the field it will usually take either something with a winch to get it out or a track hoe. . Commercial fertilizer (ammonia nitrate) of course also incurs lots of transportation costs. It is usually more convenient but still expensive and you have the same transportation and application problems. One big disadvantage to commercial fertilizers is that if you apply them, say on a 40 acre hay meadow and it doesn’t rain within a few days, you lose a lot of nitrogen to the air. Also it does not last near as good as chicken litter.
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Artelia
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If farmers were to keep chickens, they could use their own chicken manure. Does wood ash also have potash? Green manures add a lot of nutrients back into the soil and many fix nitrogen from the air into the soil too.
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Howdy
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Hello Mark,
We have rabbits, and I heard the poop doesn’t need to be composted. We used to throw It away with the straw and sawdust, but now It all gets saved for a small plot we want to start when the weather picks up. I recall the sawdust will absorb the Nitrogen and hold it so not immediately available. Any thoughts?
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Herb Rose
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Hi Howdy,
Green wood chips and sawdust are acidic and will drive off the nitrogen. A neighbor once covered his garden with wood chips as mulch. He got nothing out of it that year.
Herb
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Howdy
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Thanks herb, I’m finding conflicting info on the whole Nitrogen thing. The sawdust will be somewhat aged, but maybe not best near roots.
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Mark Tapley
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Hello Howdy:
What I recommend is to just till all of this material into your garden area. Especially at the end of the season. This will attract earth worms and condition the soil. Doing this will help your soil to gradually become of a loamy character regardless of wether it is now to clay like or to sandy. Most garden crops are not real particular as to soil ph except potatoes (need sulphur). Most plants prefer a slightly hydroxyl ph and if needed you can throw in some lime over the whole area and it will also help break up clay soil over time. If you need nitrogen just side dress your plants once they are going. Be careful. Tomatoes, beans, peas, cucurbits don’t meed very much if any and if over fertilized (especially tomatoes) will produce big green plants but no fruit. corn is a notable exception as it is a heavy feeder (like cotton) and need fertilizer. Last thing (and probably the most important) is good drainage. If you have poor drainage nothing will do any good, end of story. You can put in raised rows but I find doing this in a wet area is more trouble than its worth. You may know all of this but if not maybe it will help.
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Howdy
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Hi Mark,
It’s mainly going to be spuds and veg on a composted food scraps/clippings etc base, with original soil cover. The compost generates loads of small worms (wrigglers?). You know when the compost is getting dry because the worms congregate.
The soil is heavy/clay so it will be a raised base. I’ll be using liquid feed or growmore pellets once it gets going.
Tried lime once for clay breakup as you suggest, but this soil is junk presently. I guess a ton of peat wouldn’t go amiss.
I watched a video a while back where spuds were lay on the surface. Found it:
337 lbs of Potatoes! NO digging, NO watering, and VERY LITTLE work!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlratwBT5OI
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Herb Rose
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Hi Howdy,
Where I live they collect the leaves in the fall and compost them.I get the mulch for free and spread it to reduce weeds, retain moisture, and have the worms pirate the soil. I spread it around the growing plants and covert garden for winter. It is no longer necessary to till the garden and the mulch converts clay soil into top soil.It does keep the soil cooler and can inhibit germination so you need to be judicious in its use. The squash family likes a lot of mulch. It is a .5,.5,.5 fertilizer so you don’t need to worry about phosphate buildup which can ruin your soil. I would recommend leaf mulch over peat since the reason peat is able to preserve bodies and not decay in the bogs is because it is acidic and prevents bacteria growth. I sweeten my soil with the ashes from my fireplace.
If you hill potatoes as they grow you increase the length of the roots and number of potatoes.
Herb
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Howdy
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Thanks Herb,
There aren’t enough leaves to be usefull here, most of what there is, the wind takes away, though I have used them in aquariums. Not too many though.
My foray into Rhododendrons and ericaceous compost told me about the acid qualities. The peat would need balancing with lime.
Yeah, I know about earthing up.
Doug Harrison
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No country with a source of natural gas needs to be short of nitrogen fertiliser and certainly not the USA. Gas can be (and is) transported by pipeline so that there is not the same need to move the heavy finished product. People need to get off their dependency on China’s cheap labour and start being self sufficient.
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yougottaloveme
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Kudos Doug. We need to develop and ingest the business philosophy that “My company doesn’t need to run to Chiner just because my company’s competition has.”
And tariffs, as chilling as they are to the concept of free trade – fair trade, need to be incorporated where necessary to help our society reach a level of stable self-sufficiency.
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Mark Tapley
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Hello Harrison:
Haven’t you heard? We are moving away from those abundant, highly efficient fuels and putting in the “Green Energy” windmills and solar disaster plan for a permanently impaired economy in the Neo feudal U.N. Sustainable Development Initiative Agenda2030-2i.
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