Phosphate is, in essence, fossilized bird poop, which serves as a suitable substitute to . . . human poop. I’m slightly oversimplifying here, but the mined bird poop is treated with acid, ground to a powder, and tossed on plants. Its commodification and production in industrial volumes has proven absolutely critical to the rise of industrialized agriculture, especially because a) there are a lot more people who need food now than there were in 1945, and b) most of humanity agrees that storing and spreading our own poop is something we would really rather not do. Testament to these facts?
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