"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Fertilizer
I mostly live in Holland and here the following is possibly even more relevant than elsewhere:
Climate change is only one part of the story. Inorganic fertilizer is the other part. Most of the current world agricultural production relies on it and the productivity gains that have been realized through its use, are unprecedented. (I am aware, that in many areas of the world, another way would have been possible, but it is not a way much travelled.) Not being able to use inorganic fertilizer will possibly require even larger adaption/mitigation than climate change. It will mean, that all developed countries and many developing countries will have to fundametally change the way in which they produce food and non-food agricultural resources (e.g. cotton and medicinal plants)
Why should we run out of inorganic fertilizer?
1. The first reason is that producing fertilizer is one of the most energy intensive industrial processes around. Producing fertilizer consumes between 2 and 5% of world energy demand. There is a good wikipedia article on this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer#High_energy_consumption), but googling fertilizer and energy will give you many more links to relevant papers and reports.). So our agricutural system is based more on fossil resources than on nature's organic nutrients. As a consequence, food prices rise with oil prices, leading to wide-spread hunger in poorer regions.
2. The second reason is that plant growth requires phosphate. Phosphate is the main ingredient of inorganic fertilizers and makes high yields possible. There is no substitute for phosphate and most of the phosphate used gets lost, wahsed to the seas. So farm there is no feasible way of closing the phosphate cycle and reclaiming it efficiently. Our main reservers oh phosphates lie in only two cournties. The disputed territory of Western Sahara and China. Both sources are politically vulnerable, eaasily blocked and nowhere near infinite. They will run low long before 2100 and force changes in the way we do agriculture on us.
Here is an excellent presentation on the consequences: http://www.uts.edu.au/new/speaks/2009/February/resources/1802-slide...
The transition described in the presentation is a major challenge to industrial scale food production. If this transition is not managed, hunger is a likely scenario for many. But of course, this also offers opportunities for other paths.
Individual action: community gardens, kitchen gardens, organic farming, organic consumption,... keep your eyes and minds open.
Climate change is only one part of the story. Inorganic fertilizer is the other part. Most of the current world agricultural production relies on it and the productivity gains that have been realized through its use, are unprecedented. (I am aware, that in many areas of the world, another way would have been possible, but it is not a way much travelled.) Not being able to use inorganic fertilizer will possibly require even larger adaption/mitigation than climate change. It will mean, that all developed countries and many developing countries will have to fundametally change the way in which they produce food and non-food agricultural resources (e.g. cotton and medicinal plants)
Why should we run out of inorganic fertilizer?
1. The first reason is that producing fertilizer is one of the most energy intensive industrial processes around. Producing fertilizer consumes between 2 and 5% of world energy demand. There is a good wikipedia article on this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer#High_energy_consumption), but googling fertilizer and energy will give you many more links to relevant papers and reports.). So our agricutural system is based more on fossil resources than on nature's organic nutrients. As a consequence, food prices rise with oil prices, leading to wide-spread hunger in poorer regions.
2. The second reason is that plant growth requires phosphate. Phosphate is the main ingredient of inorganic fertilizers and makes high yields possible. There is no substitute for phosphate and most of the phosphate used gets lost, wahsed to the seas. So farm there is no feasible way of closing the phosphate cycle and reclaiming it efficiently. Our main reservers oh phosphates lie in only two cournties. The disputed territory of Western Sahara and China. Both sources are politically vulnerable, eaasily blocked and nowhere near infinite. They will run low long before 2100 and force changes in the way we do agriculture on us.
Here is an excellent presentation on the consequences: http://www.uts.edu.au/new/speaks/2009/February/resources/1802-slide...
The transition described in the presentation is a major challenge to industrial scale food production. If this transition is not managed, hunger is a likely scenario for many. But of course, this also offers opportunities for other paths.
Individual action: community gardens, kitchen gardens, organic farming, organic consumption,... keep your eyes and minds open.
Views: 45
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Comment by Mita Williams on March 14, 2010 at 1:16am
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Thanks so much for this. I never thought of phosphate as being a limited resource since - where I live, we frequently hear of algal blooms and other bad news related to too much phosphates being washed from farmland into the Great Lakes. +25 for Local Insight!
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