GLOBAL RESOURCES ANALYSIS


RESOURCES | PHOSPHORUS


DNA is build from phosphorus. This is a fact of life. No phosphorus, no DNA, no cells, no growth and thereby no crop/food. Many elements we use for equipment or buildings we can substitute, but phosphorus is one of the few that can't be replaced: there is no phosphorus free DNA. Less phosphorus, less food, less live. Our current waste water systems leaks phosphorus to the seas at large scale. We don't care as we can import phosphorus from Morocco or China: the two main global phosphorus suppliers (such much for independence or better said: dependence). The first inconvenient truth on phosphorus is that we only have import phosphorus as long as China and Morocco want to sell it to us. The second inconvenient truth on phosphorus is that China and Morocco can raise the price of this global scare element if they like (as in: taxing global food, really just as it says: taxing global food production). The third inconvenient truth on phosphorus is that the known / proven reserves are just enough for just 2 decades. The fourth inconvenient truth on phosphorus is that in the 20th century proven reserves has been adjusted upwards continuous, but in the 21st century the reality delivers a reversed development: proven (as in: explorable) resources are downsized regular both in volume and quality. We need to change our waste water model. It may not longer leak phosphorus into the high seas. We must recover the phosphorus in waste water and that takes a complete different wast water treatment/model. Additional we must recover/harvest massively phosphorus out of the high seas. We do that already massively by fish, we will do that also by massively harvesting/growing seaweed (has perfect very high quality proteins) out of the high seas and maybe also by massively harvesting/growing algae (has perfect very high quality omega 3 oils) out of the high seas. Only with a total new approach on phosphorus our current agricultural model will survive, otherwise our current global food model will collapse to severe lower outputs, causing global chaos by very expensive food prices.


Author: Gijs Graafland


Back to Resources Index


Download the full Global Resources Analysis report in PDF