The article, entitled "Falling Potash: Stop the Impending Agricultural Collapse", was printed on a national natural health website. According to the article, readily available potash (mined from the earth) is rapidly declining and fertilizers producers are having to transport the mineral longer distances using much more fuel. My Dad, who runs the local feed and fertilizer store, mentioned that much of our fertilizers components are being exported to China which has been driving up prices. Neal Kinsey, a well-known agricultural consultant whom I've trained with, told us during class (about 5 years ago) that a dozen of the largest families in the US have been quietly buying up mineral rights and mines across the country...cornering the market. He expected then that prices would rise.
The same article mentioned that phosphorous stocks have been on the decline since the 1970s. I've experienced this first-hand when Lonfosco, the manufacturer of Malcolm Beck's Soft Rock Phosphate, ran out of material a couple of years ago. While there is other soft rock phosphate, it is harder and less available to the plants. http://www.NaturalNews.com/028495_agriculture_potash.html
Impact on Organic Gardening/Farming
For organic farmers and growers, it is less of a problem. Potassium is relatively abundant in manures and composts. For those needing to build their soil, Texas Greensand, mined here in Mason county, is loaded with potassium as well as iron and many other trace minerals. I recently learned from a Master Gardener friend that greensand is actually fossilized trilobite poop...dinosaur poop?
Phosphorous is a little more interesting. Malcolm Beck is the guy that discovered that the best way to apply phosphorous is by dusting the hole or row directly beneath the roots with soft rock phosphate (SRP) would increase yields by 20%. Phosphorous is about the only mineral that doesn't move through the soil and has a nasty habit of locking up essential trace minerals. By placing the SRP near the roots, the plants take it up before it has a chance to bind with other minerals and become unavailable. If you use this technique, it may be worthwhile to stock up on SRP while it is still available. Garden-Ville's Rock Fuel is a transplant fertilizer loaded with SRP and is an excellent alternative to straight SRP.
Chicken manures and composts are loaded with phosphorous and there probably is adequate phosphorous in most good composts. Bone meal also has 12% phosphorous if you can find it.
Soil Biology and the Soil Food Web
Dr. Elaine Ingham has been researching the soil food web and all the microscopic creatures that inhabit this underworld. She has learned that these guys live in symbiosis with plants and produce many, if not all, of the nutrients a plant needs. Actively aerated compost tea is a method she came up with to inoculate soil with these guys to help provide plant nutrition and protection against disease and pests too. This is an inexpensive method requiring little inputs (molasses and a shovel of good compost) and may be the future of agriculture.
What Does All This Mean?
Well, for conventional agriculture farmers who use copious amounts of these minerals, productions prices will increase meaning food prices will increase. Eventually farming practices will change and the old wasteful methods will disappear.
In the short term, it most likely means food prices will continue to increase and food quality will continue to decline.
Another good reason to grow your own food!
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