Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Our physical reality is made of minerals, also known as elements. There are 90 or
so naturally occurring elements, from Hydrogen to Uranium, and we don't really
know how many of them we need in order to live, but it's a lot of them. We must
have Iron to transport Oxygen in the blood. Calcium and Phosphorus are used to
build the crystal lattice of our bones and teeth. Lack of Zinc causes sterility,
decreased brain development, loss of sensory acuteness. When the immune
system is threatened by infection it releases its stores of Copper from the liver and
pulls Iron from the blood. Many metals are re-used over and over as catalysts in
the formation of proteins and amino acids. They serve as templates, shapes, that
the proteins are folded around. The shape of the protein determines its fit into its
intended destination in a living cell. The health, growth, and reproduction of all
living things is dependent on the availability and proper balance of mineral
elements.
Despite the pervasive ignorance in agriculture, we all know from our nutritional
knowledge that minerals are essential to our health. How many people take a
vitamin/mineral supplement? Or Calcium supplements? The science of nutrition is
well aware of essential minerals, and nutrition topics, radio programs, and
websites are always decrying the lack of minerals in our food, telling us how the
soil is depleted of minerals, and how we can save ourselves from this menace by
taking a mineral supplement. Meanwhile, the organic food promoters keep
claiming that organically grown food has more minerals, without having a clue
whether that's true or not, and in most cases without having an inkling if there are
actually any minerals in the soil at all.
Why the disconnect? If minerals are not in the food it's because they are not
available in the soil. So why not add them to the soil and get them in your food?At
the same time, feed and activate the soil life, bring the humus level up to optimum
for your soil and climate, and provide the energy the plants and soil life need. The
soil will be healthy, the plants too, and so will the people and animals who eat the
nutrient-dense food grown in the Ideal Soil.
If we look at agricultural soils from a nutritional standpoint, they are much more
than an anchor for the roots, a base to keep the crops from falling over. Each crop
harvested and taken away depletes the soil's store of essential nutrient minerals.
If the minerals are not replaced, we eventually reach a point where there are not
enough left to grow a healthy crop with the ability to mature seeds for the next
generation. Long before this point is reached, the nutrient density of the crop for
human and animal food has suffered. Much of our arable land worldwide is
producing empty calories, mostly carbohydrates made from the atmospheric
elements Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen. The solution, the only solution (barring
the ability of plants or soil organisms to transmute elements alchemically), is to
supply these needed minerals from a source where they are abundant. That
source should ideally be located as close as possible to where the minerals are
needed in order to minimize transportation costs. It makes no sense to ship
ground limestone across the country when every state in the USAhas limestone
