00:00Today's video is about a serious subject, and you should pay attention to it.
00:04Imagine a chemical element without which no plant grows, no food reaches your table,
00:10and no civilization can sustain itself.
00:13And we're wasting it as if it were infinite.
00:23Today we're going to talk about a problem that few people know about,
00:27but that is directly connected to every meal you have.
00:31We're talking about the phosphorus crisis,
00:34an element that's in the DNA of everything that lives,
00:38and that global agriculture consumes in gigantic amounts, without any substitute available.
00:45But what is phosphorus, and why is it so important for agriculture?
00:48Phosphorus is a chemical element discovered in 1669 by a German alchemist named Hennig Brand,
00:56who was searching for a philosopher's stone in the city of Hamburg.
01:01Believe it or not, he boiled about 1,000 to 1,200 gallons of human urine,
01:06and after a complex process of heating and distillation,
01:11he obtained a white material that glowed in the dark,
01:15and at the time he called it cold fire.
01:18The name phosphorus comes from the Greek phosphoros, which means light bearer.
01:24But what Brand didn't imagine was that the element he extracted from urine
01:29was actually one of the fundamental building blocks of life itself.
01:33Phosphorus is part of the structure of DNA and RNA,
01:37the nucleic acids that carry the genetic information of all cells.
01:41It is also a component of ATP,
01:45the molecule that stores and transfers energy within cells,
01:48functioning as a biological battery.
01:51In bones and teeth, phosphorus is present in the form of calcium phosphate.
01:57In plants, phosphorus is one of the three essential macronutrients,
02:02along with nitrogen and potassium,
02:04forming the famous NPK,
02:07which appears on every bag of fertilizer.
02:10It is responsible for energy transfer in the plant,
02:14for root formation,
02:15for flowering,
02:16and for the production of fruits and seeds.
02:19The thing is, without enough phosphorus,
02:22the plant simply stops growing.
02:24And where does the phosphorus used in agriculture come from?
02:27In nature, phosphorus circulates in an extremely slow cycle.
02:31Unlike nitrogen,
02:32which makes up 78% of the atmosphere
02:36and can be captured from the air,
02:38phosphorus doesn't have a gaseous phase in its natural cycle.
02:43It comes from rocks,
02:45specifically from deposits of phosphate rocks
02:47formed over millions of years from ancient marine sediments.
02:53The weathering of these rocks releases phosphorus into the soil very slowly
02:58and plants absorb it through their roots.
03:01And so, for billions of years,
03:04this cycle worked.
03:06But when the human population started to grow exponentially,
03:10nature could no longer provide phosphorus fast enough to sustain food production.
03:16The solution came in the 19th century,
03:20when scientists discovered that it was possible to extract phosphorus from phosphate rocks
03:26and turn it into fertilizer.
03:29From then on, agriculture changed completely.
03:32Today, almost all the food that reaches your table
03:35has depended at some point on phosphorus-based fertilizer.
03:39According to data from CSIRO, the Scientific Agency of Australia,
03:44about 30% of the world's arable land
03:48has low natural phosphorus availability.
03:52And they depend entirely on fertilizers to maintain productivity.
03:56The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s,
04:02which multiplied food production and fed billions of people,
04:06was largely built on the foundation of NPK fertilizers.
04:11Without the phosphorus from these rocks,
04:13global agricultural productivity would plummet.
04:17But how do we reach these phosphate rocks?
04:20And how are they extracted from the earth?
04:23Phosphate mining is basically done in two ways,
04:26depending on how deep the deposit is.
04:29When the deposit is close to the surface,
04:32the method uses open-pit mining,
04:34which is simpler and cheaper.
04:36Now, when the deposit is deeper,
04:38underground mining comes into play
04:40and ends up making the extraction process more expensive.
04:44Regardless of the method, there is material loss.
04:48Between 5 and 50% of the phosphate
04:51can be lost in open-pit mines
04:54and between 15 and 35 in underground mines,
04:59according to data published by Science Direct.
05:02In other words, even during extraction,
05:05we are already wasting part of the resource.
05:08But the rock extracted from the mine
05:10can't go straight to the fields.
05:12It needs to go to a process called beneficiation.
05:16This beneficiation is a set of physical steps
05:19that transforms the raw rock extracted from the mine
05:22into a concentrate with the proper phosphorus content.
05:25But even the beneficiate concentrate
05:28phosphate still isn't suitable for plants.
05:30Phosphate rock, as it comes out of beneficiation,
05:33is practically insoluble in water
05:35and plants can only absorb dissolved nutrients.
05:38And this is where the chemical transformation
05:40comes in and changes everything.
05:42The most widely used chemical process in the world
05:45is the so-called wet process.
05:47Basically, phosphate rock
05:50is mixed and reacts with sulfuric acid.
05:53And this reaction produces phosphoric acid and gypsum,
05:57also known as calcium sulfate.
06:00Phosphoric acid
06:02is what matters
06:03because it is water-soluble
06:05and can be turned into the fertilizers
06:07that go to the fields.
06:09Gypsum is a by-product
06:10that needs to be discarded.
06:11And this is where
06:14a huge environmental problem arises
06:16because this residual gypsum
06:18called phosphogypsum
06:20is produced in impressive quantities.
06:23For every ton of phosphoric acid produced,
06:26about 5 tons of phosphogypsum are generated.
06:30Worldwide,
06:31it is estimated that
06:33about 280 million tons
06:36of phosphogypsum
06:37are produced each year.
06:39And the problem
06:39is not just the volume.
06:42But we could use this phosphogypsum
06:44in construction, right?
06:46The problem is
06:47that this phosphogypsum
06:48contains radioactive elements
06:50such as uranium,
06:52thorium and radium
06:53which decay and form redone gas,
06:56a radioactive gas
06:57associated with cancer risk.
06:59In the United States,
07:00the EPA prohibits
07:02the use of phosphogypsum
07:03in construction
07:04precisely because of its radioactivity.
07:07Florida alone
07:08has already accumulated
07:09about 1 billion tons
07:11of this material
07:13in open-air piles
07:14which occupy huge areas
07:17and they need to be permanently monitored.
07:20But going back to the crops,
07:21we have the phosphoric acid ready.
07:24What happens to it?
07:25Well, this acid
07:27is the base
07:28for the production
07:28of practically
07:29all the phosphate fertilizers
07:31in the world.
07:32It can be turned
07:33into single superphosphate
07:36into triple superphosphate
07:38or mixed with ammonia
07:41to form NPK fertilizers
07:44which contain nitrogen,
07:45phosphorus and potassium together.
07:48These fertilizers
07:49are applied to crops
07:50to replenish the phosphorus
07:52that plants absorb during growth.
07:55Without this replenishment,
07:56the soil becomes depleted
07:58in just a few harvests
07:59and productivity drops drastically.
08:02But if we have phosphate rocks
08:04and an industrial process working,
08:06what's the problem?
08:07The problem is that these rocks
08:10are a finite
08:11and non-renewable resource
08:12on a human timescale.
08:14There is no synthetic substitute
08:16for phosphorus in agriculture
08:18and it can't be produced
08:19in a laboratory
08:20in an economically viable way.
08:22And the distribution
08:23of these reserves
08:24is extremely concentrated.
08:26According to data
08:27from the U.S. Geological Survey
08:29from 2025,
08:31Morocco holds approximately
08:3368% of all known
08:37phosphate rock reserves
08:38in the world,
08:40which is around 50 billion tons.
08:44North Africa as a whole,
08:46including Morocco,
08:47Algeria, Senegal,
08:49Tunisia and South Africa
08:50holds about 98%
08:52of the global reserves.
08:54And that means
08:55the food security
08:56of the entire planet
08:58depends on a handful
08:59of countries
09:00to supply the phosphorus
09:01that keeps crops productive.
09:03Any political instability
09:05or conflict
09:06in this region
09:07can destabilize
09:08global food production.
09:10But are we going
09:11to run out of phosphorus?
09:12Is that what's happening?
09:14The concept of peak phosphorus
09:15was proposed in 2008
09:18by the researcher
09:20Dana Cordell.
09:21The idea,
09:22inspired by the concept
09:23of peak oil,
09:24is that global production
09:26of phosphate rock
09:27will reach a peak
09:28and then start to decline
09:30as the most accessible
09:31mines are depleted.
09:32The original estimates
09:34suggested that the peak
09:35could occur around 2030
09:37and that the reserves
09:38could last from
09:3950 to 100 years.
09:42More recent studies,
09:43published in 2024,
09:45in the journal Nature Food,
09:47suggest that with optimized use,
09:49the reserves could last
09:51from 373 to 766 years.
09:55There is heated debate
09:57about the numbers,
09:58but the fact that phosphorus
09:59is finite and irreplaceable
10:01is not in question.
10:02And what happens to phosphorus
10:04when we throw it on the fields?
10:06Here is one of the most frustrating
10:08paradoxes of this crisis.
10:10When the farmer
10:11applies phosphate fertilizer
10:13to the soil,
10:14a good part of the phosphorus
10:15never reaches the plants.
10:18It binds to soil particles
10:20forming insoluble compounds
10:21with iron and aluminum
10:23in acidic soils,
10:24or it runs off with the rain
10:26and ends up in rivers
10:27and the sea.
10:28This excess phosphorus
10:30in the water
10:30causes a phenomenon
10:31called eutrophication,
10:33where algae proliferate
10:35uncontrollably,
10:36consume all the oxygen
10:38in the water,
10:38and when they die
10:40and decompose,
10:43they create dead zones,
10:45where no fish can survive.
10:47The Gulf of Mexico
10:49has one of these dead zones,
10:51caused largely
10:52by fertilizer runoff
10:53from the American Midwest
10:55through the Mississippi River.
10:57In other words,
10:58we use a finite
10:59and irreplaceable resource
11:01extracted from mines
11:03at a very high
11:04environmental cost
11:05to produce food.
11:07And we still let much of it
11:09go to waste in rivers,
11:10destroying aquatic ecosystems
11:12in the process.
11:13Is there a solution
11:14for agriculture?
11:16Well, several approaches
11:17are being studied,
11:18and most of them
11:19involve changing the way
11:20agriculture deals with phosphorus.
11:22One of them
11:23is the recovery of phosphorus
11:24from sewage and animal waste,
11:26which makes for a delightful
11:28bit of historical irony,
11:30because Brandt
11:31discovered phosphorus
11:32in urine in 1669.
11:36And more than 350 years later,
11:39science is once again
11:40looking at waste
11:41as a source of this element.
11:43Another approach
11:44is the development
11:45of crop varieties
11:46that absorb phosphorus
11:47more efficiently
11:48from the soil,
11:49reducing the need
11:50for fertilizer.
11:51Studies published
11:52in 2025
11:53estimate
11:54that the phosphorus
11:56stocks accumulated
11:57in the world's
11:58agricultural soils,
11:59although not readily
12:00available to plants,
12:02represent between
12:04146 and 186 years
12:07of current consumption,
12:09as long as they can be accessed
12:11with more efficient crops.
12:13There is also research
12:14on microorganisms
12:16capable of solubilizing
12:17the phosphorus
12:18that is already in the soil
12:20but that plants cannot absorb.
12:23And there are also studies
12:24on recovering the phosphorus
12:26present in the phosphogypsum piles
12:28that have accumulated
12:29over decades.
12:30In any case,
12:31this is a problem
12:32we need to deal with now
12:33so we don't suffer
12:35from a lack of phosphorus
12:36tomorrow.
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13:14And you?
13:15Had you ever heard
13:16about the phosphorus crisis?
13:20Did you know
13:21there was this whole
13:22industrial chain
13:23behind the fertilizer
13:24that ends up in the fields?
13:26Do you think
13:27recycling human and animal waste
13:29and developing
13:29more efficient plants
13:31can solve this problem
13:32before the mines run out?
13:35Leave your opinion
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