permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

--- On Thu, 3/31/11, Linda Ray <lindaray@att.net> wrote:
> IMHO when/if that happens, ...

It has already happened.  The exact date of P-peak may be a matter of debate, 
but the fact is that already the prospect of scarcity makes the price go up.  
A couple of years ago, China, which is one of the major P producers 
worldwide, increased the price for P and restricted exports so as to channel 
more P to its own farming sector.  This caused a stir in Japan and other 
places that depend on P exports from China for their domestic farming.  That 
is also the background of the present article.  China controls much of the 
World’s phosphorous and rare metal reserves and by that means may also 
control our own future.  Not a very comforting idea.

> it should instigate a change away from the current nonfunctional 
> NPK model and produce a resurgence of sustainable farming, by necessity.

Nice idea, the trouble is that you can't make big bugs with mulch or compost. 
 Our industrial model of society and farming requires industrial production 
methods.  Perhaps industry will come up with some substitute, or perhaps 
develop GMO crops that don’t need P.  Something along that line, anything, no 
matter how degraded, as long as it can produced industrially and we don’t 
have to work with our own hands.  That would be decidedly too distasteful to 
most of us.

Dieter