The Haber process consumes 3–5% of the world's natural gas production (around 1–2% of the world's energy supply).
BTW: you can toss a stone from my garden into the courtyard of a farm. Believe me, despite all his tractors and the endless gadgets that fit onto those tractors, that man works very hard to help feed the other 98% of Switzerland!
Excellent piece, Richard. Fantastic. I know several farmers, and they are terrifyingly smart people. Dairy, grain, doesn't matter. The amount of knowledge required to farm these days is huge. Hedges, forwards, exchange rates, capital discipline, borrowing. Farming has become ultra sophisticated.
One of my relatives farms something like 40+ full sections in SK.
Absolutely. People have no idea of the value of capitalism and creating wealth. Attacking energy is having widespread impacts on the economy and people are genuinely surprised at it. The lessons are going to hurt.
Witty as usual.
Excellent! Was waiting for the Ike quote!
In all honesty - I only discovered it when writing his post... would love to pretend I was a true polymath :-)
Another very good article demystifying the essential role of cheap and dependable sources of energy in society. A liitle nugget to add :
“...nearly 50% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber-Bosch Process” (Solomon, P. M. – 2004).
The Haber Process now produces 450 million tonnes of ammonia, most of which is used to produce ammonium nitrate for fertiliser.
https://oxsci.org/the-haber-process-a-simple-discovery-that-changed-the-world/
The Haber process consumes 3–5% of the world's natural gas production (around 1–2% of the world's energy supply).
BTW: you can toss a stone from my garden into the courtyard of a farm. Believe me, despite all his tractors and the endless gadgets that fit onto those tractors, that man works very hard to help feed the other 98% of Switzerland!
Excellent piece, Richard. Fantastic. I know several farmers, and they are terrifyingly smart people. Dairy, grain, doesn't matter. The amount of knowledge required to farm these days is huge. Hedges, forwards, exchange rates, capital discipline, borrowing. Farming has become ultra sophisticated.
One of my relatives farms something like 40+ full sections in SK.
and all that for razor thin margins... so people have cheap food and lots of disposable income for fast-fashion and iphones...
Absolutely. People have no idea of the value of capitalism and creating wealth. Attacking energy is having widespread impacts on the economy and people are genuinely surprised at it. The lessons are going to hurt.