How your PEE can help avoid a food crisis

Phosphorus is a key component of fertilizers. But the raw material has a finite source, and we’re squandering what’s already there. How can we prevent a shortage — and what does our pee have to do with it? #PlanetA #Agriculture #FertilizerShortage Credits: Reporter: Beina Xu Video Editor: Nils Reinecke Supervising Editors: Kiyo Dörrer, Michael Trobridge We’re destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we’ll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess. Read more: Morocco situation: National Geographic on Phosphorus Crisis: Wasting of Phosphorus by the Atlantic: The New Yorker on Food Crisis: On Global Phosphorus Shortage: “Understanding Phosphorus Fertilizers“ by University of Minnesota: Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:51 What is phosphorus? 02:21 Where do we get it from? 03:36 Where does it go? 05:04 Pee fertilizer 07:09 Microbial help 07:47 The road ahead