"Closing the Phosphorus Loop"

"Phosphorus is a dwindling, and non-renewable, component of agricultural fertilizers, essential to growing food for Earth’s burgeoning population, says the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a Winnipeg-based environmental think tank, which recently released a report on phosphorus spills in Manitoba's waterways.

(The problem in Lake Winnipeg is so severe that the green-blue algae can be seen from space.)

In a race against time (some experts cite 30 years, some 100, until the resource runs out), scientists are scrambling to recapture phosphorus. “So, we convert a problem into a product,” says Fred Koch, a researcher at the University of British Columbia."

Sharon Oosthoek reports for the Toronto Globe and Mail March 15, 2010.