The bones of the matter

NOW, here’s a thing. Had you been eating bread and breakfast in the mid 19th century, it’s quite possible that you could have been digesting food grown or grazed on soil fertilised by the granulated bones of British soldiers slain during the Napoleonic wars.

At that time, the use of calcified material (a source of phosphate) as an agricultural growing aid was increasing and, in the absence of alternative sources in sufficient