Lobbying Blitz Pushed Fertilizer Prices Higher

The red tide was indeed caused by a breakdown of a phosphate damn, as was discussed previously. A regrettable accident to a system designed to prevent it. It was however an exception rather than the rule, no reason to shut down an industry, and they should be required to fix it going forward.

 

Hey and Chernobyl was caused by a test of their system designed to prevent nuclear disasters. A regrettable accident by a system designed to prevent it.

 

So... two years into Biden's disastrous stay in the WH and it's Trumps fault that we have fertilizer shortages?

Love these articles...

 

FYI the Sr VP of Mosaic North America is a UF grad and also is my oldest son’s Godfather.

 

Go visit Streamsong if you think Mosaic is so bad!!
As far as big sugar goes, measure water quality flowing into the lake from the Kissimmee River, just south of all the septic tanks, golf courses and homes around the mouse, then measure water quality coming out of the lake and see how much Big Sugar actually contributes.

 

Also important to note that Mosaic had nothing to do with the Piney Point spill into tampa bay. A company HRK holdings was.

 

Yes, it was opened by Borden Chemical just after I left the area to return to Jacksonville. Yes, it was a division of Borden Dairy. It was sold to a startup called Mulberry Inc, which folded a decade or so later, and while still active in Florida the phosphate industry is way down from its heyday.

 

the system is broken. the stacks are not being properly inspected or maintained. it wasn't an accident, it was negligence. the red tide bloom here is SW florida a few years back killed everything from 200 pound tarpon to 500 lbl loggerheads, and massive Golaith grouper, schools of mullet, tens of thousands of snook and redfish all killed and people sick for weeks and months. 4 years later and snook and redfish are still closed to harvest trying to rebuild stocks that continue to struggle to recover. All a direct result of the legacy pollution from Lake O getting flushed out to the GOM and feeding the blooms. And it only a matter of time and weather before this happens again legacy pollution lining the bottom of Lake 0. Beaches from Tampa south to Boca Grande and further are closed due to high levels of bacteria. Our water quality system si broke and not doing anything meaningful to address the disease instead of the symptoms

 

streamsong is great, it is the downstream product that leaves the regulatory environment that becomes the problem. and not necessarily Mosaic but the industry, like others, has a way of isolating the liabilities into non-revenue LLC's that either go BK or struggle to get by with limited funding. I have nothing against the industry, I just want them to own the whole lifespan of the process. it is akin to all the oil and gas wells that have yet to be properly abandoned and the cost that is placing on the taxpayers at the end of their useful lifes

How about we set up real time monitoring stations at each ag canal testing nitrogen, phosphate, and dissolved oxygen levels and where each ranch runoff leaves their property. Big cattle in the Kissimeee and big around around the lake refuse to agree to real time monitoring to identify the origin of the nutrients.

WRT big sugar, it makes no sense to continue to place high tariffs on imported and subsidize the sugar industry here in the US. That costs everybody that buys sugar tens of millions a year and puts land into sugar production taht could be better used for other purposes

 

I appreciate what you are saying and not trying to be argumentative, just wanting to point out some of the ag side.
First cattle have been part of Florida's industries for a long time. At one-point cattle was second to only tourism in the state, not sure where it is rankled now. Most all operations have best practices in place to reduce any runoff that may occur. Farmer's work for a profit and with the price of fertilizers very little additional luxury fertilizers are applied. All recommendations made for fertilizer inputs are based off the need to grow the crop and the amount of nutrient removed by the fruit, vegetable, etc. so very little excess is used. Typically, the folks crying the loudest live in gated communities with golf courses and pay big dollars to make sure that course is perfect in color every day of the year. Look at application rates versus typical ag rates and you would be very surprised.
Have you been to the sugar producing areas near Clewiston and Belle Glade? Not sure what other purpose they could possibly serve. More housing? That will be more environmentally sound!
If sugar goes away, towns like Clewiston, Belle Glade, Pahokee will shut down as sugar employs a large portion of their residence and the rest in service industry to serve those sugar employees

 

I understand that cattle and ag are big business. Below is a link to the"bible" of water quality design for Florida. In it, there are runoff values for various land uses that were tested around the state. A few relevant tables are copied below for you to see the runoff differentials betwen different land uses. Look at the suspended solids, nitrogen, and phosphorous from grazing land. Who owns most of the cows in the Kiss. River Basin (Mormon Church?) I am aware that most ag places have volunteered and claim to implement BMP's. I work with and for some very large ag owners and am aware of the reality of how things are done when the fields are wet and the crop is threatened. Let's just say changes from Best Manamgement Plan to Big Mama Pumps when the most solids and nutrients are suspended in the flood waters. Land application of sewage waste is another big factor that needs to be much more strictly regulated. BMP's ie lakes and deterntion/retention areas etc in development areas are permitted inspected, certified, and post construction inspected.
BMP's at ag areas are voluntary and not permitted, not inspected. Note that the values in the reports are upstream of any BMP's so the golf courses and gated ommunites are putting out much less than the rates ntoed in the report once the stormwater is attenuated in the systems designed for each development. One has to do a pre vs post nutrient analysis on every permitted project, ie it generated this load as native ground, it will generate that much or less post development. No nutrient analysis that uses Harvey ahrper method, no permit. UCF BMP program is industry standard now to do these analysis without lots of paper. I don't think farmers and cattle are bad people, friends with many of them, but their business models do not include what should be the cost of doing busienss, ie building proper BMP's. Development now sets aside 15 - 25% of their land to build structural BMPs to treat nutrients, the cost of the extra land is built into the product. Not so much for ag.

Microsoft Word - SW TREATMENT REPORT-SEC 1-607.doc (erd.org)