Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
deposits, but when it comes to rare elements like Selenium or Boron which are
only found in concentrated form a few places in the world, the transport costs are
justified.
Mining of the needed minerals need not entail long-term environmental damage
either. Mines and quarries can be carefully worked by those who care about their
home planet, and when the mines are depleted they can be landscaped and
planted to be as or more beautiful than before mining. It's also worth noting that
many of the economically viable sources for agricultural minerals contain such
high concentrations of these minerals that they are toxic to soil life and little or
nothing grows there. Removing these toxic concentrations and using them to
make other parts of the planet healthier and more productive can, at the same
time, open up these formerly toxic soils to the growth of forest or grasslands.
None of this should be done on the basis of greed or short-term gain, but rather
wisely, intelligently, and in harmony with Nature.
Awonderful thing about a balanced, mineralized soil based on the soil's exchange
capacity is that everything else becomes easier. The soil pH self-adjusts to its
optimum, plant disease and insect problems largely disappear, water retention,
drainage, soil texture, and rate of decay of organic matter all become
self-regulating and automatic, weather permitting. The grower knows that the
nutrients are in the
crop because the nutrients are available in the soil. The soil life is active and
healthy and helping to make these nutrients available, and the plants growing on
this ideal soil have free-choice of any nutrient they want, in balance, a balance
designed by intelligent science and observation.
All of this can be achieved using minerals in the form of naturally-occurring rocks
and mineral ores or their purified forms, ancient sea-bed deposits, ocean water,
and the byproducts from plants and animals. The cultural practices one is
presently using may change little, except to become easier. This is real science in
harmony with nature, using all of the best of ancient and modern knowledge
intelligently: the NewAgriculture.
There are a few simple and basic principles that govern soil mineral balance. The
most important to understand is the soil's Cation Exchange Capacity, or CEC,
often referred to simply as exchange capacity or EC. This is a measure of the
quantity of nutrients and non-nutrients the soil can hold, how big its "holding tank"
is. The lower the tank gets, the more the soil life and plants have to struggle to get
their nutrients. On the other hand, if one applies more nutrients than the soil can
hold, those nutrients will wash away in rain or irrigation water, or build up in the
soil. Excess nutrients are either unnecessary or harmful. One would not put 30
gallons of gasoline in a twenty gallon tank and expect to gain anything. Exchange
Capacity EC is the amount the soil can hold onto and use. One must know their
