In this month's Green Living Magazine, Distinguished Sustainability Scientist Jim Elser talks about the one ingredient we all depend on but never talk about: phosphorus. He has been studying phosphorus for over 20 years. The element naturally occurs in our environment and is used to grow our food. However, due to the globe's increasing population and the resulting stress on food supplies, phosphorus levels are dwindling.

Elser started ASU's Phosphorus Sustainability Initiative to find ways to conserve, recycle, and sustain global phosphorus supplies. Unfortunately, there is no way to create phosphorus in the lab. The only supplies are what the Earth produces.

"This is the biggest problem we’ve never heard of," Elser says.