Phosphorous

As the principal component of all fertilizers, phosphorus may not seem like a significant element to most people, but it is essential to maintaining our food supply. One of the most essential natural elements for contemporary human life, phosphorus is utilized to grow our food in about 90% of the world's phosphorous extracted from diverse deposits.

But several of the largest phosphorus reserves in the world have been fully depleted in recent years. We are already using it up more quickly than natural processes can replace it. If we don't discover new, substantial phosphorus supplies soon, we might run out of it entirely in roughly 80 years.

The excessive and ignorant use of fertilizers worldwide is the main cause of this phosphorus deficit. Small-scale farmers frequently use significantly more fertilizer than necessary since developing nations lack advanced farming techniques. This permanently harms the ecology and depletes the phosphorous supplies as well as seeps into water sources.

Even if we stop that, however, it is a truth that phosphorus is limited in supply, just like all other vital natural resources found on Earth. To truly tackle this issue, we would need to develop whole new techniques for farming and food production.