Foxtrotting For Fertilizer

This is a tale of good deals, and I will serve as your conductor as the good-deal train hurtles through the tunnel of opportunity along its amazing journey toward the light of good fortune at the end.

Sarcasm. But just the other day I was perusing Memphis Flyer when two advertisements for good deals – unbeatable deals – jumped out and bit me right in the … er, on the nose.

The first was for foxtrot lessons. For a mere $6, you can get two hours’ worth. Think about that – only $3 an hour to learn to foxtrot. I’m not saying where the lessons are being taught – I don’t want to start a stampede.

The second was for classes called “All About Grout.” It didn’t say how much the classes cost, but it said you could get 10% off if you brought the ad with you. Think about that – 10% off to know all about grout. I am not saying where the classes are being taught – I don’t want to start a stampede.

But seriously, in this issue, we have a story on the skyrocketing prices of fertilizer. Using urea as an example, prices have doubled since 2003, and the culprit is natural gas prices. Or is it entirely? Natural gas accounts for 70%-90% of the production cost of anhydrous ammonia, the basic stock ingredient in nitrogen fertilizers. From 2003 to 2005, the price of natural gas for commercial use rose from less than $9 per thousand cubic feet to nearly $15. But natural gas prices dropped to around $10 in 2006, before moving back into the $11 range in ’07. To do my due diligence, information sources are cited in the story.

So nitrogen fertilizer prices followed suit, right? You know the answer is they did not. One of the major reasons was that during the ’80s and ’90s, foreign countries had significant price advantages on the cost of production, including natural gas. We could buy urea in Russia and ship it all the way over here cheaper than we could make it in, say, Yazoo City, MS. We now import over 50% of our nitrogen fertilizers and 80% of our potash.

Because of cheap imported fertilizers, domestic facilities were mothballed – which is one way to say they were closed. Every time I drive beneath the bluff in Yazoo City upon which sits the once grand, and now deserted, office building of Mississippi Chemical Corp., I am reminded of that. One of these days that decaying building is going to slide down the bluff and hit somebody right in the … er, head.

So what were good fertilizer deals in the ’80s and ’90s are not right now, are they? Same song, second verse with our textile industry. Infrastructure is long gone, and maybe lost for good.

The answers? I don’t have them, so I admit I deserve to be kicked right in the … er, teeth, for starting this as a question I can’t answer. But if we don’t find some solutions very soon, we’re going to be foxtrotting for fertilizer down on the street corner.

Also in this issue, we begin a “Back to Basics” series. Pull the cultivators out of the weeds, ‘cause we may want to start talking about them again.