SOIL MANAGEMENT vs BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

One can hardly suggest we are struggling in these ‘chemically supported’ systems of our soils, plants, animals and humankind because there have been no clear indicators of failure or we simply did not know another way. The truth is anything but this.

Over a hundred years ago, research and publications began warning of the dangers of chemical fertility, the potential loss of food nutrition and soil destruction. But that was not all. Great discoveries, research and understanding were coming forth about the laws of nature as it applied to soils, soil chemistry, soil biology, plant growth and nutrition. This research and learning continued in earnest in the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, even on until now, but at even more accelerated rates in the past several decades. 

So how was it that the ‘industry’ chose to follow the path that has lead us to the current calamities that besiege us in agriculture today and away from the known and ongoing discoveries that continued to prove that natural law was the course to follow?

The question we really need to ask is this: did Nature then and does Nature now hold the proper principles to sustainable agriculture and nutrient dense food that is capable of sustaining all life forms in a healthy, vibrant and productive manner? Or, was it time to abandon a failing system and move onto something new? One more question is needed here if you suggest the latter. Were the ‘failures’ then and now because the principles in Nature had finally collapsed after thousands of years or were the failures because people were not following the laws of nature in their soil, plant, animal management practices?

In short, why did an entire industry embrace the use of refined fertilizers and toxic chemicals and discard the use of naturally occurring minerals supported by a healthy microbial system in the soil?

Here’s the answer; those pushing a new aggressive agenda for refined fertilizers and toxic chemicals did not make these decisions blindly or unknowingly. There was reliable information then (over 100 years ago) and even more information now that shows this course was wrong and would lead to failure after failure until it would eventually destroy the resources in the soil and jeopardize the health of all living organisms. 

The decision was based on MONEY; not wisdom!

QUICK REALITY CHECK

Today modern agricultural practices use over a BILLION pounds of toxic chemical insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and fumigants each year. The US alone applies just under 25 MILLION TONS of refined fertilizers each year and has for nearly 40 years. This has created a ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico that ranges in size from 5,000 to 8,200 SQ MILES as a result of soluble nitrogen and phosphate leaching into the Mississippi River from farmlands and ending up in the gulf where it causes algae bloom sufficient to drop the oxygen content of the water to 2 ppm, killing virtually all aquatic life forms. This disaster was not there 100 years ago; agribusiness made it. We have destroyed, eroded, or lost over 50% of our functional topsoil’s in the last century. Worldwide modern agriculture is destroying more than 10 MILLION acres annually that will no longer produce any crop. One can hardly suggest that agriculture is not being ‘chemically supported.’ How long can we continue to do this? Not forever!

The vast majority of livestock production—poultry, swine and beef—is currently ‘chemically dependent’ with the overuse of antibiotics and growth stimulants.

Study upon study showed a marked decline in the nutrient contents of our foods. Researchers from Washington State University (Jones and Murphy) analyzed 63 spring wheat varieties grown between 1842 and 2003 found an 11% decline in iron, 16% decline in copper, 25% decline in zinc, and 50% decline in selenium. A Kushi Institute analysis from 1975 to 1997 found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27%, iron levels dropped 37%, and vitamin A levels dropped 21%, with vitamin C down 30%. A study published in the British Food Journal (data from 1930 to 1980) on 20 vegetables showed that calcium declined 19%, iron declined 22%, and potassium declined 14%.

Health issues and the occurrence of disease among the human populations have been on the rise for decades and in the past 20 years have seen an accelerated increase unlike anything we have historically experienced. Fewer and fewer people are healthy; more and more people are drug or pharmaceutically dependent. The next generation will likely live a shorter, more diseased prone life than the current generation.

There is a long, well-established and predictable pattern here. Show me one soil that is better today than 100 years ago; show me one crop that is healthier with higher mineral content and nutrient dense components. Producing more food products containing mostly empty calories does not equate to nutrition, just more junk.

Yet this is the road agribusiness chose to follow over a century ago and has diligently pursued ever since then, in spite of the obvious failures and shortcomings. So, what was it that agribusiness so easily traded for the enormous profits enjoyed for so long by agriculture suppliers?

I will tell you about the research and data (wisdom) that we possessed as long as 100 years ago that warned us not to go down this path of chemical agriculture. The knowledge and answers we had then are the only principles that can repair the agricultural systems of today.