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Trump says U.S. to continue buying Canadian potash — but wants cheaper price | Globalnews.ca (globalnews.ca)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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Someone finally got through to Trump that Belarus has no potash to spare. All of their production is under contract.

Someone is feeding Trump fake news, and Trump is making very public announcements based on it. The bad intel, one might suspect, is designed to make Trump look foolish, having to backtrack. I wonder if that' someone' is Vance, who desperately wants to evict Trump from the White House after the mid-terms?

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[–] 34 points 5 days ago (3 children)

No one is mentioning trump created the fertilizer problem. First with trade wars, then actual wars and then finally by doubling down on trade wars.

The Persian gulf is a huge global source of fertilizer ingredients

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/03/visual-guide-gulf-fertiliser-blockade

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  • [–] 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    Fertilizer is best thought of as 3 separate products, limited by either nitrogen, phosphorous, or potassium. Plants need all 3 of them to grow.

    Your article is primarily about nitrogen fertilizers, which is usually made by processing fossil fuels. It's possible to make nitrogen fertilizers without fossil fuels, but that's more expensive, so the fossil fuel methods dominate.

    Canadian production of potash (potassium compounds used for fertilizer) is a different product, with different supply chains.

    Phosphorous production is dominated by China and Morocco (with some significant production by United States, Russia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) so that's not really in either discussion about fertilizer shortages or trade wars now.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    Your article is primarily about nitrogen fertilizers, which is usually made by processing fossil fuels.

    Air, actually! (Well, nitrogen from air, and hydrogen. Which might come from fossil fuels, but that's a relatively minor consideration)

    It's just a really energy intensive process, so fuel is the main input in cost terms.

    Also, fun fact about phosphorus: it's expected deposits will be depleted in a few decades. Efforts are already underway to start recovering it from sewage, instead.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago

    that's not really in either discussion about fertilizer shortages or trade wars now.

    At least not yet...

    I have every confidence in Trump's ability to fuck that up too without understanding the consequences of his actions.

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