Phosphate products are an essential ingredient that help farmers all over the world grow bountiful crops for everyone’s families. However, anti-phosphate groups want to stop the production and use of phosphate fertilizers. What if they got their way?
Sadly, it is no longer a rhetorical question.
Last year, leaders in the South Asian country Sri Lanka implemented a total ban on phosphate-based fertilizer use, forcing the overnight adoption of fully organic-based farming methods without consideration of the shocking human consequences.
What happened next was as predictable as it was tragic. Without phosphate products, crop yields dropped at an alarming rate. Sri Lanka’s rice harvest fell 40%, while other staples like corn and sorghum yielded between 30-60% less crop. While the ban was partially reversed, it was too little, too late—it had already contributed to the collapse of Sri Lanka’s government and today, 6.4 million people are going hungry.
With inflation soaring, Americans today are dealing with food insecurity and higher prices at the grocery store. “Made in Florida” phosphate products are more essential than ever to keeping America fed and preventing a crisis like the one unfolding in Sri Lanka.
Learn more about the crisis in Sri Lanka here: Foreign Policy & Wall Street Journal
