Shit your way to food is precisely what they seem to be suggesting now. Not right now or next year but in twenty years or so, the forecast is that we will reach peak phosphate or at [http://www.resilience.org/stories/2007-08-13/peak-phosphorus].
So what? The what is that phosphate or phosphorous is the key ingredient or nutrient for agriculture.
It is a major ingredient in photosynthesis, energy transfer and nutrient transport. Plants which have a deficient supply of phosphorous will be stunted and produce low quality flowers, fruits and seeds. In short, if you don’t have phosphorous, forget about good yields.
If you look at the above picture, you can see the cows representing the animal-to-soil/plant transfer of phosphorous in the cycle. In fact every living animal (including birds and reptiles) ‘fertilize’ the land by their droppings - thus they take part in the phosphorous cycle. There are islands in Pacific which are rich in guano - bird shit - from which phosphate is mined and used as manure.
Curiously the picture doesn’t show humans - the single largest group of animals affecting the climate of the planet.
And most (at least in rich/developed countries and in pockets in others) of human sewage is treated and discharged without being put to use. The idea is now to ‘harvest human excreta’ and use it instead of chemical fertilizer in agriculture.
Is the Non-Conventional Energy Minister, the Environment Minister and the Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister of the GoI listening?
Knock, knock guys, how about a little heads up and some planning right now? Twenty years is not too far away - probably you all will be alive and eating too.
So any plans? or have we to wait for another 15 years to suddenly wake up and go begging for a ‘Phosphate Process Deal’ a la Nuclear Deal with US or Europe?
Or even worse - to the Aussies or the Chinese!
:-P
So what? The what is that phosphate or phosphorous is the key ingredient or nutrient for agriculture.
It is a major ingredient in photosynthesis, energy transfer and nutrient transport. Plants which have a deficient supply of phosphorous will be stunted and produce low quality flowers, fruits and seeds. In short, if you don’t have phosphorous, forget about good yields.
If you look at the above picture, you can see the cows representing the animal-to-soil/plant transfer of phosphorous in the cycle. In fact every living animal (including birds and reptiles) ‘fertilize’ the land by their droppings - thus they take part in the phosphorous cycle. There are islands in Pacific which are rich in guano - bird shit - from which phosphate is mined and used as manure.
Curiously the picture doesn’t show humans - the single largest group of animals affecting the climate of the planet.
And most (at least in rich/developed countries and in pockets in others) of human sewage is treated and discharged without being put to use. The idea is now to ‘harvest human excreta’ and use it instead of chemical fertilizer in agriculture.
Is the Non-Conventional Energy Minister, the Environment Minister and the Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister of the GoI listening?
Knock, knock guys, how about a little heads up and some planning right now? Twenty years is not too far away - probably you all will be alive and eating too.
So any plans? or have we to wait for another 15 years to suddenly wake up and go begging for a ‘Phosphate Process Deal’ a la Nuclear Deal with US or Europe?
Or even worse - to the Aussies or the Chinese!
:-P
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