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What happened to all the people pushing organic fertilizers? Why don't they source more of that?

by pkaye 4y ago

swader999 4y ago
See Sri Lanka.
goda90 4y ago
The best solution for this is years of weaning the soil off of chemical inputs towards a no-till, cover crop, managed grazing solution. It takes a few years of regrowing the soil before it can start to output as much as a synthetically fertilized field.
time_to_smile 4y ago
Because, as we have seen here, most of the green solutions to our industrial problems are not really viable at scale at the present moment. If they were this war would have been trivially ended since Russia would have no power over the developed world. This war is a perfect object lesson in exactly how dependent we are globally on fossil fuels. That we are more decades than we have left away from solving our hydrocarbon problem. And that if we do happen to cross peak oil in a few years (which will actually be good for climate change) the result won't be a transition to green energy but global war on an unprecedented scale. People paying close attention have been pointing this out for decades but dismissed as "pessimists" by green idealists.
nemo44x 4y ago
The cost of living in "good times" where things are plentiful due to the status quo and existing policy is we have to listen to idiots who claim we're doing it all wrong and that we need to change our ways. These people's voices are squashed when times aren't so good because we have to actually succeed and get things done. But they'll be back once things are back to being good, complaining about everything, claiming the world is ending and that nothing is sustainable and that everything is broken.
JTbane 4y ago
Compost takes years to make, and is bulky. Ammonia-based fertilizer can be made on an industrial scale with continuous processes and is basically pure nutrients for plants.
- jonringer117 4y ago
  Compost takes 20 days to 20 months depending on the feed stock. The main issue with compost is that it can be effective in high-intensity operations like market gardens, but it's much less effective on large acre operations (corn, soy, wheat, etc). Not to mention that compost is really difficult to come by now. Unless a farmer is making compost on the side, they can't really treat it as a known input. I would also argue that chronic over-usage of ammonia-based fertilizers and over-tiling has contributed to degradation to much of the world's farming soil. Which has given rise to many adverse effects such nutrient runoff, poor water infiltration, soil erosion, and downstream effects.

What happened to all the people pushing organic fertilizers? Why don't they source more of that?

by pkaye 4y ago

What happened to all the people pushing organic fertilizers? Why don't they source more of that?

swader999 4y ago

See Sri Lanka.

goda90 4y ago

The best solution for this is years of weaning the soil off of chemical inputs towards a no-till, cover crop, managed grazing solution. It takes a few years of regrowing the soil before it can start to output as much as a synthetically fertilized field.

time_to_smile 4y ago

Because, as we have seen here, most of the green solutions to our industrial problems are not really viable at scale at the present moment. If they were this war would have been trivially ended since Russia would have no power over the developed world. This war is a perfect object lesson in exactly how dependent we are globally on fossil fuels. That we are more decades than we have left away from solving our hydrocarbon problem. And that if we do happen to cross peak oil in a few years (which will actually be good for climate change) the result won't be a transition to green energy but global war on an unprecedented scale. People paying close attention have been pointing this out for decades but dismissed as "pessimists" by green idealists.

nemo44x 4y ago

The cost of living in "good times" where things are plentiful due to the status quo and existing policy is we have to listen to idiots who claim we're doing it all wrong and that we need to change our ways. These people's voices are squashed when times aren't so good because we have to actually succeed and get things done. But they'll be back once things are back to being good, complaining about everything, claiming the world is ending and that nothing is sustainable and that everything is broken.

JTbane 4y ago

Compost takes years to make, and is bulky. Ammonia-based fertilizer can be made on an industrial scale with continuous processes and is basically pure nutrients for plants.

jonringer117 4y ago
Compost takes 20 days to 20 months depending on the feed stock. The main issue with compost is that it can be effective in high-intensity operations like market gardens, but it's much less effective on large acre operations (corn, soy, wheat, etc). Not to mention that compost is really difficult to come by now. Unless a farmer is making compost on the side, they can't really treat it as a known input. I would also argue that chronic over-usage of ammonia-based fertilizers and over-tiling has contributed to degradation to much of the world's farming soil. Which has given rise to many adverse effects such nutrient runoff, poor water infiltration, soil erosion, and downstream effects.