What is True Sustainability?
Plain and simple: recycling nutrients an infinite number of times.
Webster’s defines sustainable as "able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed; and able to last or continue for a long time." But what is sustainability for ag worldwide?
Plain and simple, it is recycling nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and others, an infinite number of times. Of course these are the nutrients plants need to grow.
We hear about natural resources being depleted, but some nutrients can be recycled an infinite number of times. As it stands now, nutrients go to four places: down the river, in the landfill, in the graveyard, or they are recycled. We need to get better at removing vital nutrients out of the rivers and landfills. When we do that, and find more creative ways to reuse our resources, then we are truly sustainable.