Artificial Fertilisers

Nature is not a corporation, we cannot throw chemical fertilizers at it like money.

Nature cannot be run like a business. It rebels if we try and crank up production in the expectation of bigger returns.

Show disrespect for nature's laws and watch out — which is what is happening to the world now. We'd surely better watch out because there are ominous signs that nature is showing us it is in control.

One of the biggest problems is artificial fertilisers and the runoffs, particulary excess nitrogen and phosphorous that leach into waterways and finally out into the seas. With unsustainable farming practices pouring chemicals willy-nilly onto vast areas of farmland, we are now endangering the oceans and its inhabitants.

Some scary scenarios, yet to be proven of course, show estimates about the world's fish stocks collapsing by 2050, partly through overfishing, and partly through the increasing number of dead zones in the ocean where pollution, including fertiliser run-offs, has depleted oxygen.

Ultimately any mess the world gets into because of overuse of chemicals causing rising pollution levels, can only be helped by sustainable growing practices. In the long run organic methods will be our savior.

Nature is already showing the symptoms of our disrespect and we will be punished for our greed in expecting too much too quickly, with no thought of the future.

As the first rays of the morning beamed out 2016, there were 7.4 billions people in the world. Estimates for 2100 are for a population of 11.2 billion.

Whether this is beyond the capacity of our planet to feed them all, time will tell and more importantly, nature will guide the human race with its magnificent intelligence and resourcefulness, to survive in the best way possible.

We all can do our bit with our home and community gardens. Producing locally, consuming locally, and using nature's fertilisers in the form of compost, returning food scraps to the soil, natural mineral rocks, animal remains and manures, and in fact anything that moves or grows, will sustain us and infinite generations to come — at least until the next ice-age, flood, big bang or cosmic collision!

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