Plants like people need nutrients, we consume food to get these nutrients, however plants get them from the ground. One of these nutrients is phosphorus, phosphorus is one of three main nutrients needed by plants. Phosphorus is essential for plants to flower and bear fruit. In conventional methods of agriculture the soil eventually loses the needed phosphorus. So the farmer then uses phosphorus fertilizers to replenish the soil. Most of the phosphorus in fertilizers is refined from phosphate rock in a process where they combine phosphate ore with acid to create phosphoric acid and then it is converted into fertilizer. According to http://www.floridaphosphate.org/ a website funded by Mosaic "Florida Phosphate accounts for nearly 60 percent of U.S. farmers’ supply of granular phosphate crop nutrients, and 15 percent of the global supply."

                Florida phosphate is extracted from one of the many strip mining facilities in Central Florida. Four counties in Central Florida Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee and Polk. This region is known as the Bone Valley as it has large deposits of fossils dug up with the phosphate. The Bone Valley is home to over 2 million people with an additional 3.9 million people in bordering counties also the region hosts diverse and fragile ecosystems with several endangered species such as the Florida Panther. The reason that the demographics are relevant to the phosphate industry lies with in Florida geological history.

                Most Floridians learned growing up that "Florida used to be underwater or was an island,” This is true, in fact 40 million years ago we were under water. Radioactive elements naturally occur in the ocean and the settle in sedimentary deposits along with shells of animals and remains of other organism. Because of this unique geology phosphate from Florida contains high levels of radioactive materials. The processing of 5 pounds of phosphate rock into fertilizer creates only 1 pound of phosphoric acid and 4 pounds of byproduct or phosphogypsum which is radioactive. For every American about 300 pounds of phosphate rock is mined and 240 pounds of by product is created. The byproduct of the phosphate industry in Florida is deemed to "hazardous" to be used in dry wall or other materials by the EPA; however, not enough is done to protect the localities in which the phosphate is mined. The radioactive phoshogypsum is piled up into huge "stacks" as they are called and some are so high they have red blinkers on top of them so planes don't collide withthem. One stack is several hundred feet high and less than a five minute drive from downtown Tampa. The only thing protecting Tampa is a small layer of sod atop the stacks. According to the legalreader.com "The EPA accused the company [Mosaic] of improperly storing and disposing over 60 billion pounds of phosphogypsum waste, with mounds that reached up to 500 feet that span over as much as 600 acres in eight facilities in Louisiana and surrounding the Tampa Bay area in Florida. Due to the major flooding in the Tampa area due to Hurricane Francis in 2004, 65 million gallons of acidic waste spilled into nearby waterways, causing extensive damage to fish and marine life. Tampa Bay is one of the few places on Earth that house the endangered manatee, or sea cow. In addition to its acidic toxicity, phosphogypsum also contains trace amounts of radioactivity. The stacks in Florida are the largest toxic waste dumps in the U.S. As an independent entity"

                The use of phosphate for the manufacturing of phosphorus fertilizer is not the only way to make phosphorus supplements it’s just the cheapest if you don’t include the damaging effects on the local environments and the possible health hazards as well as the large amount of land required to mine phosphate. There many ways around the use of phosphate but many will argue to keep using it but if you ask any informed Floridian such as me they would most likely say that it has to stop.