Henry Hobhouse
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 A strip of land, from 2 feet wide in very wet soils to as much as 6—7 feet wide in dry soils, is spread with whatever manure may be available: seaweed, the rotted turf of an old house, or dry peat. A ditch is then dug on either side, and the earth from it is thrown up ore top of the manure. The bed is now self-draining and the potatoes have been "ridged up" before they have been planted. The tubers can then be planted with a dibbler. Alternatively, the setts may be placed on the manure and covered with earth as the trenches are dug. |
Michael Pollan
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 Halweil cites a considerable body of research demonstrating that plants grown with industrial fertilizers are often nutritionally inferior to the same varieties grown in organic soils. Why this should be so is uncertain, but there are a couple of hypotheses. Crops grown with chemical fertilizers
*The news of declining nutrient levels in American produce prompted The Packer, a trade publication for the produce industry, to suggest that this might actually be good for business, because people would now need to eat more produce to get the same nutritional benefit. |
| But the common denominator of good health, he concluded, was to eat a traditional diet consisting of fresh foods from animals and plants grown on soils that were themselves rich in nutrients.
Price paid special attention to the quality of animal-based foods and its link to what those animals ate. He compared the vitamin content of butter produced from cows grazing on spring grass to that of animals on winter forages; not only were levels of vitamins A and D much higher in the yellower butter of the pastured animals but the health of the people who subsisted on those animals was better too. |
| In the wake of Liebig's identification of the big three macronutrients that plants need to grow—nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK)—and Fritz Haber's invention of a method for synthesizing nitrogen fertilizer from fossil fuels, agricultural soils began receiving large doses of the big three but little else. |
David Wolfe
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 Ocean water can be added to soils in 20 to 1 (20 parts pure water to 1 part ocean water) or 30 to 1 or 40 to 1 concentrations. Even more dilute homeopathic applications can be tried (such 100 to 1 or 1,000 to 1 ratios). Interestingly, both Rudolf Steiner and Viktor Schauberger seem to favor homeopathic methods for healing weak soils.
MINERAL TRADE-OUT
1 Discover rock dust. Visit your local gravel quarry, ask for the chemist, get several bags of rock dust (they should be free), and throw and sprinkle the dust directly into the soil around your trees and garden. |
Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe
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 Recently, Arturo Gomez-Pompa and his colleagues21 have found cacao trees, along with other useful species, growing in just such sinkholes near the town of Valladolid, Yucatan, in which the damp micro-environment and rich soils provide an ideal setting for this plant in the otherwise dry peninsula. |
| Secondly, being a limestone karst plain, there are virually no rivers, and the rich alluvial soils favorable to cacao growth are absent. Only in the lands bordering Chetumal Bay in the southeast, and along the Belize River, were commercially viable cacao plantations possible. Yet cacao had so much religious and social prestige among the Yucatec Maya that they found a means to grow it anyway. This was through the exploitation of humid, soilfilled sinkholes, known locally as cenotes (corrupted from the Maya dzonot). |
Michael Pollan
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| Rodale, that soils rich in organic matter produce more nutritious food. Recently a handful of well-controlled comparisons of crops grown organically and conventionally have found appreciably higher levels of antioxidants, flavonoids, vitamins, and other nutrients in several of the organic crops. Of course after a few days riding crosscountry in a truck the nutritional quality of any kind of produce will deteriorate, so ideally you want to look for food that is both organic and local.
«EAT WILD FOODS WHEN YOU C A N. |
| By breaking the links among local soils, local foods, and local peoples, the industrial food system disrupted the circular flow of nutrients through the food chain. Whatever the advantages of the new industrial system, it could no longer meet the biochemical requirements of the human body, which, not having had time to adapt, was failing in new ways.
Whether or not you're willing to travel quite that far with Dr. |
Victoria Boutenko, M.A.
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 The following example with pure-bred horses clearly demonstrates the impact soil can have on people and animals: "Within a few generations, the originally giant dappled Percheron draft horses, developed on the soils of a French district south of Normandy, had dwindled to the size of Cossack horses, though their bloodlines had been kept pure by the Soviets and their confirmation remained the same, though miniaturized."46 This case reveals that the soils plants grow in are as important to our health as plants themselves, if not more so! |
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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 Both the surface and subsurface soils were discovered to be heavily contaminated by PCBs escaping from the equipment.
Starting in 1999, the area soil was removed and the PCB-laced drains leading from the facility into the sewer system were cleaned. But such environmental cleanup can never return an area to its former unblemished state. Residents learned that night that traces of the chemical remained in nearby sewers and that the sewer system ran through a heavily populated part of the East Ferry area, where, local advocates worried, PCB levels might still pose some health risk. |
Victoria Boutenko, M.A.
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| We cannot successfully feed soils with chemicals because "biology does not equal chemistry."52 In other words, chemical fertilizers are missing live enzymes which contribute to the most unique qualities of all soils. According to the abundance of research done in different countries, soil enzymes can transform one element into another if such "biological transmutation" would benefit the plants that grow in this soil. Take a look at the following quotes from numerous studies and see for yourself. |
Mike Adams
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| You can quite easily see this yourself by growing plants in various soils and noting the difference in the plant height, viability, production of fruits or vegetables, and other characteristics.
I conducted one such experiment myself and planted sunflower seeds in various soils. The seed on the left was planted in desert soil that has very low nutrition (it's mostly sand). The seed on the right, which was planted at the exact same time and day, was planted in topsoil made from forest compost products, such as leaves, pine needles and so on. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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 Indeed, the world is threatened by ongoing pandemics of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and, potentially, avian influenza that are being driven by the mineral impoverishment of global soils and the poorer quality food they are producing. Professor Foster has described, for example, the role played by selenium deficiency in accelerating the HIV/AIDS pandemic.11'12
Anti-aging
Niacin is a remarkable anti-aging nutrient, much simpler and safer than drugs prescribed to treat aging conditioned. A study by L.H. |
Mark Sircus
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 Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
We are not getting the minerals we need because modem agricultural methods, including widespread use ofNPK fertilizer, over farming, loss of protective ground cover and trees, and lack of humus have made soils vulnerable to erosion. The result is a reduced nutrient content of crops.
N P K fertilizer is highly acidic. It disrupts the pH (acid/alkaline) balance of the soil, as does acid rain. Acid conditions destroy soil microorganisms whose job it is to transmute soil minerals into a form that is usable by plants. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 An organic, locally-farmed apple from a small family farm tells a very different story: Respect for nature, positive intention, healthful soils, humility in nature, connection with plants and animals, biodiversity, minimal use of fossil fuels, and so on. This is the kind of apple I'd like to eat… how about you?
Now here's the real kicker in all this: When you eat an apple, you absorb and assimilate the story that went into creating that apple! |
| The existence of that apple is based on numerous inputs that may be highly detrimental to the health of the planet as a whole: The burning of fossil fuels for farming and transportation, the use of chemical pesticides that wash downstream and poison aquatic ecosystems, the use of artificial fertilizers that lack real soil nutrition, the destruction of microbial life in agricultural soils, the loss of biodiversity and the subsequent decline in wildlife populations, and so on. |
| There's no way to know where the food came from, what soils it was grown in, the immigration status of those who harvested it, and which chemicals were used on it. And to make matters worse, powerful food corporations are constantly trying to water down the definition of "organic" to include the agricultural use of obscene substances such as raw human sewage. (Fortunately, that was not ultimately allowed under the "organic" label, but the food companies tried to sneak it in!)
The only way to truly know where your food comes from is to know your local farmers. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The result is that mainstream food is less nutritious with each passing year, and that doesn't even consider the mass mineral depletion of the soils that further contributes to the nutritional deficiency of foods.
It all comes back to the same fundamentals: If you want to be a healthy person, you'll need to source real food grown by real people who live real close by. Buy local. Support Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organizations (www.LocalHarvest.org). Visit local farmer co-ops, and grow what you can in your own garden. Buy organic, and research the companies you're buying from. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Their cultivation is earth-friendly and sustainable, which is in great contrast to the chemical production of laundry detergent which pollutes our waters, soils and bodies. Soap berry saponins can even be used to cleanse the soil and help rid it of toxic substances.
You can even make a natural garden pesticide out of soap berries, and use it to protect your plants from pests without poisoning your food or soil. It's truly an astounding solution for earth-friendly cleanliness, and it's provided by Mother Nature. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The soap works so well that it's actually being studied right now as a way to decontaminate soils from exposure to toxic chemicals. How's that for a natural solution? Nature's soap can save the planet from man's soap.
The bottom line: Nature's replacement for manufactured soap products
Overall, I'm incredibly delighted to have discovered Maggie's Soap Nuts. They're nature's gift to the world, and we would all be smart to stop buying manufactured laundry detergents and switch to natural laundry soaps that grow on trees. It's good for your health, your family and your environment. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 All the stuff that kills you: the acrylamides, pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants that are either sprayed on the foods, absorbed through the soils or created during high-heat cooking processes.
Acrylamides are cancer-causing substances created when carbohydrates are cooked at high temperatures -- frying, baking, etc. Remember those fried snack chips? Browned pancakes? Pan-fried hash browns? Yep, they all have acrylamides, and the hotter the cooking, the more you get. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Mike: Of course, a lot of the products that you sell at Nature's First Law are highly mineralized because they come from natural soils. I mean a lot of them are actually wild-crafted, like the Brazil nuts, correct?
Wolfe: That's correct. Well, the main thing about food -- even before minerals -- is that the whole thing that's going on with food today is love. If there's love in the food -- if the farmer loves what they're doing, and they love the whole making of the food and sending the food off to people and they have that whole connection with the earth -- the food's going to be great. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 They are injected with antibiotics and hormones; they are fed grain that's been sprayed with pesticides and sometimes grown in soils laced with heavy metals. There are Polychlorinated Biphenyls, rocket fuel, and all kinds of other contaminants found in the fat cells of animals that have been raised for food.
So, if you take a cow, pig or chicken and you look at the way it's treated in a commercial ranching or farming environment, you'll find that it's a very unhealthy food source, because it has consumed and concentrated all of these toxic chemicals. |
Bill Sardi
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 Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that is emitted from soils and rocks and is in some water sources. The EPA promotes radon monitoring and sealing of homes to prevent an indoor radon gas hazard. The range of radon gas in U.S. homes varies by a factor of over 1,000. The EPA says "there is no safe level of radon - any exposure poses some risk of cancer." The EPA bases its claim on studies published by the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 which said radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States after cigarette smoking. |
Victoria Boutenko, M.A.
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| This case reveals that the soils plants grow in are as important to our health as plants themselves, if not more so! In other words, as odd as it sounds, our well-being depends on the quality of the land in which our food grows because the original source of nutrients for humans comes from soils, not plants.
The main difference between organic and conventional gardening is that "Conventional agriculture attempts to feed the plants while the organic method nourishes the microorganisms in soil. |
Mark Lynas
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 Rather as California offered sanctuary of a sort to displaced 'Okies' during the Dust Bowl, the Midwest and Great Lakes areas will need to provide jobs and sustenance to those who can no longer scratch a living from the sandy soils far out west, once the rains stop falling and the desert winds begin to blow.
Already the day after tomorrow?
Just as farmers on the High Plains of North America are watching their fields and grasslands blowing away in the relentless heat, their kinfolk across the Atlantic may be grappling with another problem: extreme cold. |
Ron Garner
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 Depending on the soils they are grown on, there can be a significant difference between commercially grown and organically grown vegetables. One study concluded that organically grown foods were richer in minerals than commercially grown products. By comparison, there was 87% less content of magnesium, potassium, manganese, iron, and copper in conventionally grown foods.'7
It is now a proven fact that when soil is made healthy with organic humus and natural minerals, plants become healthier and more pest-resistant. They do not contain "weakness attractors" for pests. |
Mark Lynas
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| However, before you rush to buy property in Sneznogorsk or Nizhnevartovsk, take note of the fact that Manabe's model also projects summertime drying in continental interiors, desiccating soils which might otherwise be available to grow crops. Areas that still receive snow in winter may help to smooth the seasonal change with gradual snowmelt, but major engineering works such as dams to hold winter rains would become essential to irrigate any new crops.
It may also become too hot in continental climates - with their annual extremes of temperature - during the summer months to grow arable crops. |
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