Sorry if I missed something while reading this. Does this system reduce the dependency on added Nitrogen (given the luming Nitrogen crisis coming in the future if current rates persist)?
Phosphorus is plentiful, current methods give us a 300+ year supply and other options exist. Potassium is a little more questionable we are likely to need to mine the ocean floors fairly soon which would spike prices, but it could ultimately be a closed loop where we are collecting the runoff.
The US for example has seen a significant reduction in runoff without that much pushback from farmers. That said, there is a point where with wasted fertilizer costs less than the methods of avoiding runoff, which changes the dynamics.
There is another article on this site about how corn will uptake far more nitrogen than it needs, so cheap, abundant nitrogen isn't really as necessary as we believe.
Would everyone composting solve this?
If anyone was unaware, urine is high in nitrogen and when added to compost is like "adding gas to fire, but slower". I never had an issue with Nitrogen in my compost.
I can see nitrogen going to waste if food ends up in a landfill, but I imagine our sewage systems recycle this for profit.
Is this manageable with habit changes?