Fertilizer Shortage? I call BS!

With global disruptions to the supply chain producing industrial chem-ag fertilizers causing panic for many farmers who have become dependent on them, I feel for farmers in a pinch right now. I know they have a lot of understandable reasons for decisions that led to this vulnerability, including state and mega corporation funded propaganda that makes it seem like plants never grew properly before they had petroleum and salt based additives for farmers to buy for them. Even relatively well sourced major publications seem to support this line of thinking without ever looking past the surface of this problem to its root causes, and the solutions to be found in the problem itself.

Why on Earth does any farmer pay for Nitrogen when its %79 of the air? Phosphorus is abundant anywhere birds are plentiful. Potassium is everywhere in the ocean, or anywhere the ocean has ever touched (most coastal soils have plenty). Micronutrients are abundant in rocks that soil biota can break down and exchange with plants for their sugars. Every nutrient/element plants need can be found in the air and rainwater, and healthy soils with diverse biota have accumulated and chelated these for plant consumption. Humans, and in particular those pushing industrial ag chemicals, have created the dependency of chem-ag farmers and their dirt (not soil anymore) by outright killing this biota or making it seem ecologically redundant to the plants that support it in return for soil microbes’ biproducts/exudates/manure.

So this fertilizer shortage panic sounds a lot to me like someone who was prescribed way too many opiates for pain after a surgery, when ibuprofen and physical therapy would have been much better for longterm recovery, and then is in panic when those narcotics are cut off without an exit ramp. I had this exact scenario with my second knee reconstruction in 2004, when opiates were pushed on me like a panacea, after I had gotten through a similar surgery on my other knee four years earlier with just ibuprofen and a teeth gritting PT regimen. The narcotic route led to horrible withdrawals and dangerous depression that nearly got me to fail out of college (if not worse, I was fortunate and made it through with a good support network). The non narcotic route got me back to playing sports and hiking just as fast, without the risks.

I see an analogy to the hard work of regenerative soil building with its low risk and longterm reward for the farmer and their descendants. Similar to avoiding pharmaceutical narcotics, the difference lies in the lack of profitability of this approach for big chem-ag. So of course it is not promoted with billions in advertising and co-opted ag-schools.

I know I am fortunate to be able to see this and apply it as I try to establish my food forest based business, and to have the capital to plan longterm, but those farmers  without these advantages are all the more vulnerable to the chem-ag soil death and debt spiral.

Anyone have thoughts on how we can turn this problem into a solution while minimizing farmers’ pain in the transition? It seems to me a first step is supporting those regenerative farmers around us, beacuse if they become the most successful, others will follow their lead.

Anyone have thoughts on how we can turn this problem into a solution while minimizing farmers’ pain in the transition?

Talk to the farmers about using regenerative farming practices.

Tell them how to use the power of photosynthesis in plants to sequester carbon in the soil

Tell them about improving soil health, crop yields, water resilience, and nutrient density.

Explain to them how to make compost tea instead of using fertilizer.

What about explaining to them all the benefits of making compost.

Help them learn how to improve their soil without chemicals.

There is so much that can be done.

We are in exactly this boat. Lawmakers who couldn't tell fertilizer from frogspawn are making all sorts of bizarro decisions... last week I read a proposal to provide rock dust to all farmers two states below me. It's a powder, should work just like ureia, right?

I live in an agricultural region and work in this field and this is all everyone is talking about. Lately my head is spinning with how we could be solving this problem on a bigger scale. Urban composting, for example.
Smaller scale people like me can do what I do, and we're the ones who are doing okay, with our rabbit turds, compost tea, seaweed, worm castings, etc. But I think anyone who farms on a larger scale for the most part has been conned into addiction, to extend your metaphor.
The research is out there, but I think most people still think it's either mad scientist stuff or hippie weirdness. And yet, a local research company has made great strides to get people thinking about no-till succession planting (soy, corn, pasture grass, then graze cattle, all one after the other), integrated livestock/crops, keeping compostables in the fields, and similar stuff. Good publicity, incentives, and outreach. This over just the past 5 years, and people are paying attention when they see the people who use these tecniques using less fertilizer/gick, winning high-yield competitions, and not suffering when the weather goes weird.

In the end, between the climate weirdness and the fertilizer situation, only people following permaculture principles are going to get good harvests. Hopefully before that, more people hop on board.

This would look better in the cider press.   Feel free to start a new thread there.