Looking to ensure your supply of food or textile commodities in the coming year? One way is to take fertilizer out of the equation as much as possible. Farmers that rely on fertilizer as a soil input are facing rising costs and scarcer availability and will pass those risks further along the supply chain.
The high cost of unsustainable agriculture
For decades, conventional growing methods for food and textile materials around the world have depleted formerly fertile farmlands. Repeatedly plowing fields has created topsoil runoff, and monoculture crops have stripped the soils of key nutrients.
In response, conventional farmers have become reliant on regular additions of fertilizer throughout the growing season. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are the building blocks of plant fertilizer, but these amendments are increasingly difficult to obtain.
New heights for fertilizer shortages
Growing in nutritionally depleted soils, conventional farmers around the world rely on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers to fuel their harvests. But those magic ingredients come at an increasing cost.