{"id":4896,"date":"2012-02-16T14:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T21:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=4896"},"modified":"2012-02-16T14:00:53","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T21:00:53","slug":"phosphate-drives-rural-caribou-countys-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/02\/16\/phosphate-drives-rural-caribou-countys-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Phosphate Drives Rural Caribou County’s Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Monsanto<\/p>

Monsanto's Soda Springs, Idaho facility<\/p><\/div>\n

The top employer in more than half of Idaho’s 44 counties is a local, state or federal government entity.\u00a0 Sixteen counties have a private company as the largest employer.\u00a0 We’re looking at who some of those private companies are, and in some cases, they’re a bit unexpected.<\/p>\n

Shoshone County for instance, known for its rich history in the mining and timber industries, has a car dealer as its top employer<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In Idaho’s southeast corner, the top two employers are natural resource companies.\u00a0 Caribou County’s top employer<\/a> is Monsanto with between 300 and 400 employees.\u00a0 Agrium U.S. Inc., comes in a close second with between 200 and 300 employees, according to data from the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Monsanto<\/a> makes the weed-killer Roundup.\u00a0 The key ingredient phosphorus, is mined in Soda Springs, Idaho by Monsanto’s subsidiary P4 Production LLC.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>

Jessica Pupovac \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>

Click on the map to see Caribou County's top five employers<\/p><\/div>\n

“The phosphate ore processed through the plant comes from nearby phosphate deposits laid down in Permian-era oceans 250 million years ago. The ore is mined and transported 10-20 miles to the plant for processing.\u00a0The first mine opened in 1952, and over the years three additional mines have been operated, all of which have provided phosphorous for Roundup brand herbicides and numerous other products.” – Monsanto<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Agrium<\/a> also mines phosphate near Soda Springs.\u00a0 It operates a fertilizer production facility in Conda, just north of Soda Springs.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates<\/a> there are almost 7,000 people living in Caribou County.\u00a0 The population has declined nearly 5 percent since the 2000 census.\u00a0 As for unemployment, Caribou County’s jobless rate<\/a> has been below the state rate since 2008 and it never reached double-digit figures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top employer in more than half of Idaho’s 44 counties is a local, state or federal government entity.\u00a0 Sixteen counties have a private company as the largest employer.\u00a0 We’re looking at who some of those private companies are, and in some cases, they’re a bit unexpected. Shoshone County for instance, known for its rich […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":4899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[50,51,133],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4908,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896\/revisions\/4908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}