Phosphates in our Ditches

I have previously written about the phosphate cycle. In nature, plants take up phosphate from the soil, and it becomes a part of plant tissue. The nutrient is returned to the soil when the plant dies. If it is ingested by animals or people, the phosphate is returned to the soil when the animal defecates. The cycle is complete.

In modern food production systems phosphate is a scarce resource. It is mined thousands of miles from here, is transported to where it is needed and applied to fields and gardens. The phosphate works its way up the food chain, and ultimately ends up in a livestock barn or human stomachs.

We flush our toilets and that phosphate is on its way to Lake Winnipeg. Animal manure is applied to agricultural fields. If the same amount of manure phosphate is applied as what the plants will take up, the natural phosphate cycle is intact. If surplus manure phosphate is applied, the extra is on its way to Lake Winnipeg. No matter how the phosphate is treated, it does not simply disappear.

As the phosphates get to Lake Winnipeg, they encourage algal growth in the lake, which in turn consumes oxygen resulting in a sterile lake unable to support fish or anything else. 

There are currently projects underway to see whether excess phosphate can be removed from Lake Winnipeg. Experimentally, cattails in the lake are being harvested and removed to see if the lake could benefit from such a removal. This may offer possibilities, but in my mind, the biggest problem is not addressed: the recovered phosphate is now a long ways from where it is needed, namely the farm fields.

Recently, David Dawson pointed out to me that the Highways Dept and Municipalities cut the grass and cattails in our ditches regularly. The lush growth in the ditches is the result of nutrients coming off the adjacent fields. In spring, many of these ditches become raging torrents. The rotting mass of cut grass is flushed down into the rivers and into Lake Winnipeg where it releases its phosphates.

Suppose, David says, an enterprising farmer cut the grass in the ditch, baled it up, took it to his farm and fed it to his cattle. Then the farmer collected the manure from his cattle and dumped it back in the ditch. There would be an outcry and rightly so. But, in fact, the farmer would be returning less to the ditch than he had taken out. The cattle would have utilized a good part of it. So why is it OK to leave all that grass in the ditch but not OK to dump the manure back in the ditch?

If we are seeking ways of removing phosphate from Lake Winnipeg, surely it makes more sense to prevent the phosphate from getting there in the first place. A relatively simple solution would be that the Highways Dept include in its grass cutting contracts a clause that the cut grass be removed. The material could be composted and recycled for public use. It’s not rocket science.

By Eric Rempel

The Economy

After our last column about a Steady State Economy, I heard from David Dawson who lives at La Broquerie. David agreed with the column, but thought the language got a little too complex at places.

Here is how he put it: I am just an ordinary guy – certainly not an economist. Here are just common sense thoughts from an amateur. Mind you, I believe the economy as a whole is so complex that no one really understands it completely. Experts build computer ‘models’ but how accurate are they.

David thinks it must be obvious to any thinking person that perpetual growth of anything, anything at all, including population and economy is unsustainable. Eventually something will have to give – probably with dramatic effect.  Nevertheless, if our economy isn’t expanding we are told something is wrong. We call it a recession or even depression.  Unemployment soars and company revenues fall, leading to a drop in government revenue. We fear another depression similar to the 1930s.

Obviously, if we can’t go on growing the economy for ever, David says, there has to be a point where growth stops and we end up in a state of permanent recession/depression or at best stagnation.  Currently our lifestyle is based on continual growth, so we are, without doubt, eventually destined for a major shake-up with huge social adjustments.  Are we possibly seeing the very beginnings of this process at the present time? The USA is having great difficulty creating jobs and getting out of the last recessionary period. There are obscenely high pay levels in the financial sector which are creating a totally unbalanced sharing of the wealth of the nation with poverty rife everywhere. Is this partly responsible for the present situation?  The demonstrators all over the world seem to think so.

According to David, when we are in a period of recession our government borrows money to boost the economy to keep employment artificially high.  By borrowing, government creates or maintains a standard of living unsupportable by the economy.  The government hopes it will be able to pay back the loans when the economy returns to growth, but as you can see growth must eventually stop.  We may end up in a situation where we can never pay back the loans, with a crippled economy paying interest only on the money it has borrowed. These payments take much needed resources out of our economy. I wonder if we are in a time of human existence when we are close to, or are actually in, a period of permanent recession/depression.  If that is the case, what are we going to do about the money we have borrowed, whether it is private, individual borrowing, or government borrowing? If this is the time we are in, now is the time to change the way we do things. 

David’s solution is to learn how to cook instead of buying pre-packaged, pre-cooked, boxed meals.  Dig up that useless lawn and plant vegetables.  Learn how to make jam, preserve and freeze your produce.  Compost the waste.

You might also join us Thursday for a presentation on the Steady State Economy. October 27, 7:00PM at the Eastman Education Centre on Loewen Bld. More information at southeasttransition.com.

Eric Rempel