A recent report by Rothamsted Research sounded the alarm over the agriculture industry’s excessive reliance on fertilizer derived from phosphates, a finite and dwindling resource. The ensuing media coverage pointed out that by far the largest reserve of phosphate lies in Morocco and Western Sahara but failed to mention that rich countries have been benefiting for decades now from supplies of phosphate from the mine at Bou Craa, in the Moroccan-occupied zone of Western Sahara.
Western Sahara is the last remaining colony in Africa whose people have not been accorded the right of self-determination. The UN Legal Office has ruled that resource extraction of this kind from occupied territory is ‘in violation of the international law principles applicable to mineral resource activities in Non-Self-Governing Territories’.
