Brace yourself for fertilizer – and food – shortages

I’ve been following the issue of supply-chain shortages carefully. Of all the stories that have plagued the news over the last two years, one of the most disturbing was a piece I read last November entitled “Fertilizer Shortages Could Become the Death Knell for Global Food Production.”

Normally I dismiss the scare factor in these kinds of doom ‘n’ gloom articles; but as someone involved in small-scale homesteading, this one caught my attention.

“The production of fertilizers has stopped for various reasons and prices have reached record highs,” begins the article. “Sky-high prices for electricity and transport will have a major impact on food prices, but fertilizer shortages risk knocking out large parts of global food production. The consequences could be grave.”

How grave? As it turns out, very grave.

Fertilizer factories across Europe have been closing down their operations due to the high costs of natural gas, which is used in production. In America, fertilizer production and availability have been crippled by everything from hurricanes hitting the Gulf Coast to fires in fertilizer plants (North Carolina and Washington) to (oddly) train derailments (Iowa and Minnesota). In short, fertilizer is a lot scarcer and more expensive than before. – READ MORE