TK-741 t1_j5yr50y wrote
Reply to comment by GeekSumsMe in The world is (on average) 50% reliant on nonrenewable sources of phosphorus fertilizer to grow food. It won't go away this century, but prices will increase and ~3/4ths of reserves are controlled by one country by fartyburly
“Have the tech” is a bit of a misnomer.
It costs billions of dollars to make marginal improvements in P removal. Financially it makes more sense to pay farmers to employ more sustainable fertilizer application practices.
Even then, excess P in groundwaters is going to lead to persistent problems for decades to come even if we stopped all new discharge of P from point and non-point sources.
A wicked problem if ever there were one.
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