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1017: The Story of Phosphorus

This paper is taken from a summary of a PhD thesis, Sustainability implications of global phosphorus scarcity for food security by Dana Cordell, Linköping University, Sweden. The summary was made for the South West Rural Enterprise Gateway Network

Year of Publication2010

There is uncertainty and lack of consensus regarding the future of phosphorus, but unless we change the way we source and use it we will reach a critical point leading to increased scarcity and pollution, further price fluctuations, affecting poor farmers first, and increasing energy consumption. We need to adopt a globally coordinated approach that includes achieving a high recovery rate of all sources of phosphorus from the food chain and from new sources of phosphate rock and by increasing efficiency in agricultural use, reducing losses in the food chain, and altering diets. 

This item is categorised as follows

• Subject Collection > Environmental impact > Wastes management & pollution control
• Subject Collection > Rural policy & development > European rural policy
• Subject Collection > Rural policy & development
• Subject Collection > Environmental impact
• Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy
• Subject Collection > Arable & industrial crops

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