Free trade in its truest form. Buyers meeting vendors in person and negotiating purchases of resources, services and products at a mutually agreed upon price.
In 1798, 32 year-old British economist Malthus anonymously published “An Essay on the Principle of Population” and in it he argued that human population’s increase geometrically (1, 2, 4, 16 etc.) while their food supply can only increase arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4 etc.). Since food is obviously necessary for us to survive, unchecked population growth in any one area or involving the whole planet would lead to individual pockets of humanity starving or even mass worldwide starvation.
Farming practices are going to have to improve and every possible acre that can be planted is going to have to be utilized and producing at its optimal level. We have to grow more food on a shrinking agricultural land base while using depleted supplies of fresh water. So the question becomes: how do farmers get higher yields per acre?
The answer is both obvious and simple. Fertilizer, specifically the potash component. Potash is fuel for food.
In order for a plant to grow and thrive, it needs a number of different chemical elements. Three of these are the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (a.k.a. potash, the scarcest of the three). Potassium makes up 1% to 2% of any plant by weight and is essential to metabolism. The availability of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil, in a readily available form, is the biggest limiter to plant growth.
The intense pressure on global food production will intensify demand for potash. Demand for foodstuffs will never go away and food supplies will only increase arithmetically while our population, as Malthus said so long ago, increases geometrically. We need potash to help grow these various grains and oilseeds, more and more of it every year.
Potassium is the seventh most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. About 93% of world potash consumption is used in fertilizers. Potash has been used since antiquity in the manufacture of glass, soap, and soil fertilizer. Potash is important for agriculture because it improves water retention, yield, nutrient value, taste, colour, texture and disease resistance of food crops. It has wide application to fruit and vegetables, rice, wheat and other grains, sugar, corn, soybeans, palm oil and cotton, all of which benefit from the nutrient’s quality enhancing properties.
For centuries Potash was principally obtained by leaching of the ashes of land and sea plants. Beginning in the 14th century potash was mined.
Most of the world reserves of potassium (K) were deposited as sea water from ancient inland oceans evaporated, and the potassium salts crystallized into beds of potash ore. These are the locations where potash is currently being mined today. The deposits are a naturally-occurring mixture of KCl and sodium chloride (NaCl), better known as common table salt. Over time, as the surface of the earth changed, these deposits were covered by thousands of feet of soil.
Most potash mines today are deep shaft mines as much as 3,300 feet underground. Others are mined as strip mines, having been laid down in horizontal layers as sedimentary rock. In above-ground processing plants, the KCl is separated from the mixture to produce a high analysis natural K fertilizer. Other naturally occurring K salts can be separated by various procedures, resulting in potassium sulfate and potassium-magnesium sulfate.
Today some of the world’s largest known potash deposits are spread all over the world. After years of trending upward, fertilizer use slowed in 2008. The worldwide economic downturn is the primary reason for the declining fertilizer use - stock inflation pricing has made it too expensive to use as a fertilizer.
While about 150 countries use potash for their crops, it is only produced in about a dozen of them. World production totaled 36 million metric tons in 2008, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Canada is the world’s leading producer, followed by Russia and Belarus; the United States ranks seventh.
Potash prices have soared in recent years. What was once a commodity worth about $200 a tonne is now speculated (by stock traders) to fetch $1,500 by 2020. In 2009 potash purchasers were paying US$872.50 per tonne at the port of Vancouver, which is a record high.
Potash is needed as the fuel for food but stock market speculation is making it too expensive to use. So is there a solution that would make it more affordable to use and allow our food producers to get the necessary higher yields per acre? Yes.
The only reason everything is so expensive today is the fact that everything is traded on the stock market (the super rich folks club). Stock brokers make huge sums of money just by selling and trading, mostly amongst themselves, natural resources and products that they never own or will never own. Before buyers can get their hands on needed products and resources traders have artificially inflated the prices. What was initially offered by a company for say $200 a tonne is traded and then artificially inflated (the higher the price the higher the profit for the brokerage firms) by traders to $872.50 per tonne, all as a result of trade speculation (conjectural consideration). Corporate giants with money to burn are the target group of all stock brokers, not the final buyer. The stock markets around the World post their stock pricing for every imaginable resource or product at the beginning of each trading day. When the bell rings the betting (trading) is on. You see betting is what is taking place on the floors of the stock markets. They are placing bets on what stocks will do good that day. They are not placing orders from the people who are actually in the market for a certain resource or product they are taking bets (An agreement usually between two parties that the one who has made an incorrect prediction about an uncertain outcome will forfeit something stipulated to the other. ) on a stock for the amusement of rich fat cats. Every time food prices rise it isn’t because of actual demand or actual stock on hand it’s all about stock brokers taking (trading) bets.
If there wasn’t a stock market there wouldn’t be a Global financial crisis. If there wasn’t a stock market there never would be a stock market crash. When a stock crashes it doesn’t mean that the actual resource or product has become worthless. The resources and products still exists. It just means rich fat cats no longer wish to play with it. It is no longer amusing for them to pass it back and forth or place bets on. So what type of trading system would be best for all? How about bringing back the old days when people actually set the price by negotiating a price - buyers negotiating purchases directly with the vendor. How about a system like a co-op - relating to, or formed as an enterprise or organization jointly owned or managed by those who actually use its products or services. Why not allow foreign countries to come to Canada or the US or any other country and negotiate purchasing deals directly with the people who have goods and services to offer. That my friends is what free trade is truly about. The free trade we have now with other countries is actually anti free trade as regulations, restrictions and bureaucracy makes it virtually impossible for any party to trade. With a co-op prices could fall on virtually everything that is produced, manufactures or mined. If China needed more Potash why couldn’t they just come to Canada and meet in person with the Potash mining people and negotiate purchasing deals? Everyone would benefit from such an arrangement. Everyone would get what they want, what they need, and all at a mutually agreed price.
