Phosphate is used as fertilizer. And it comes from the ground.
As fertilizer prices increase and as the areas that mine phosphate become less productive, this could trigger even larger increases in ethanol prices and in food prices. And with increases in food prices, more people worldwide will not be able to eat well.
The good news is that phosphate can be captured from our waste and re-used again and again. The other good news is that organic farming that does not use phosphate has comparative yields without phosphates. It takes more physical labor and more science to be successful in organic farming, but for them, the costs of phosphates do not matter.
But what other costs are there? What other components to ethanol and to our current production and consumption of energy are forgotten linchpins for our society? Top soil and water quality are two that jump to the front of my mind.
