So Long "green" revolution, hello "Green" revolution

I'm really trying not to let this blog devolve into just another whackjob pontificating on the evils of the world, so rather than talk about the bad side of a story, I'll look at the positives.


The Bad:

Fertilizer is getting expensive. Since much of the commercial fertilizer is petroleum based...well you do the math.

and the P in the NPK is getting harder to come by: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/13/64820/6921

The Upside:

The eternal struggle of agriculturalized society has been to maximize output of the land. More readily available nutrients makes for faster growing plants, thats the bottom line. These nutrients can come from a bag that you buy and spread on your crops...And keep you dependent on an industry. Fortunately, there was a time before petrochemical fertilizer when people were able to have good harvests without such inputs. Its called a circle of life for a reason. One organism's waste is another's food. Somewhere along the line we convinced ourselves that life was a one way street, and recycling is something you only do with manufactured goods. Now faced with a shortage of a precious commodity we will have to kick that old habit, and learn to walk on our own feet again. Forced with adaptation or exctinction we WILL remember how to nurture life from the soil without fertilizers or pesticides. I'm not concerned about my own garden plot, I make all the NPK fertilizer I can possibly use. Humanity will learn to close the loop again or we will not survive. And this challenge is something I am actually optimistic about, because challenge brings out the best in us, so long as we carefully stand guard against the worst in us.