ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the one central issue in potash development: state intervention in Canada and its consequences for security of supply in the United States. It reviews the major policy issues, giving special attention to the issue of state intervention in Canada; identifies the key policy-makers; and draws the consequences of developments for the bilateral relationship. Potash, a component of mixed fertilizers for which there is no substitute, must be considered a critical raw material in view of the importance of expanded food production to global development and the potential of agropower as a source of foreign-policy influence. Politics has had an influence on the structure of the international potash market ever since potash mining began in Germany in 1861. The critical factor in the conflict between the potash industry and the Saskatchewan government was certainly the Blakeney government's determination to increase the yield it received from resource extraction.
