TLDR: Farmer who talks about all this: youtube.com/@farmtotaber
There’s lots of actual farmers who talk about the fertilizer situation. Since the start of agricultural subsidies we have pigeonholed our farmers into growing cash crops. Chemical companies clocked in and invested genetically modified strains of said cash crops that are resistant to their pesticides. All the while the US gov is pumping cash into the farm sector to overproduce crops for export. Farmers forgot how to farm without pesticides because there is too much tax payer money being funneled to grow the same cash crops year over year.
These new crops make it very easy to grow the most profitable crops but they require accompanying pesticides and fertilizers to be feasible.
We need to stop handing money to farmers and let them fail and open the playing field to new farms who can’t compete with government subsidized multi billion dollar “family farms”.
Golden@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Nice to see at least one voice of reason here. Even if OP is correct about an upcoming fertilizer shortage, how on earth would going out and starting a garden help at all?
Commercial farms would buy up all of whatever supplies there are & home gardeners would be priced out of it. Unless you’re running a whole farm with chickens, worms, and compost you’re also going to need fertilizer on a local scale.