Fitness

A friend of mine, who has made a hobby of vegetable raising, has composted his soil. In flavor and beauty his vegetables so far surpass those purchased at the market that you can scarcely recognize them as the same. This year his soil was analyzed at the Foundation for Agricultural Research; 8 their report states: “With one or two exceptions, this soil is in very good condition. It shows evidence of repeated composting.” My friend tells me that his soil ranked high in comparison with 3,000 other analyses this foundation has run. It was only slightly too alkaline, contained somewhat near the optimum amounts of nitrogen and manganese, was adequate in potassium, or potash, and was somewhat high in calcium but within a favorable range. This far-above-average soil, however, contained one-half as much sodium, one fourth as much phosphorus, one-eighth as much sulfur, one tenth as much copper, less than one-twentieth as much cobalt, one-fortieth as much boron, less than one-fortieth as much zinc, one-sixtieth as much iron, and one-eightieth as much manganese as are considered to approach the ideal. Although this soil is less than two miles from the Pacific Ocean, it contained no detectable iodine. If this is far-above average soil, what are our market vegetables, fruits, and grains being grown on?

The point of view I shall next express is bitterly contested by some commercial fertilizer interests. It is viewed with contempt by many agriculturists, but not all, in the United States Department of Agriculture and the State Agricultural Colleges and Experimental Stations. Granted the subject is controversial. My point of view, however, is that of some outstanding agriculturists, physicians, and other scientists whose interests lie in the promotion of health from the ground up. In fact the following discussion has been read and blessed by persons holding doctorates in agriculture, medicine, dentistry, and biochemistry.

According to my understanding, it is not merely the mineral content of the soil which determines the nutritive value of foods grown on that soil. Many other factors enter in. There must be minerals, of course, although plants seemingly flourish when many deficiencies exist; if minerals are not in the soil, they cannot possibly be in the plants. To build genuine health in plants, however, there must also be humus which serves as food for bacteria, fungi, and molds. Furthermore, these minerals must first be changed to ionized form by soil bacteria and so held in the soil moisture. The soil fungi, which grow into the roots of plants, pick up the dissolved minerals and thus feed them to the plants. This cooperative situation between fungi and plant roots is known as the mycorrhiza relationship. If all minerals are generously supplied, the plants, so fed, remain healthy and resist disease. Their protein, mineral, and vitamin contents are high. They can support the health of animals and of people. Thus was all the food grown on the well-mineralized virgin soil of young America; such food helped make great men of our forefathers. The nutritive value of their food was limited only by the natural supply of minerals in the soil.

Then mass production came and with it the use of chemical fertilizers: natural rock treated with concentrated sulfuric acid, now sold as superphosphate; the pure chemicals ammonium sulfate and potassium sulfate, which is spoken of as potash. These chemicals dissolved in water as easily as sugar in a cup of coffee. They saturated the soil moisture, making it difficult or impossible for the less easily dissolved iron, copper, magnesium, zinc, and other elements to stay in the soil solution. The excessive amount of sulfur, accumulating from repeated applications of chemical fertilizers, became toxic to the mineral-transferring fungi. The importance of humus was often overlooked; the already existing humus was used up, and little or none was returned to the soil. The valuable bacteria and fungi cannot grow without humus to feed them. Minerals may be in the soil, but without massive numbers of bacteria and fungi they cannot be dissolved; without life-sustaining humus, fungi no longer grow into the plant roots. The soil was gradually depleted of natural minerals which were taken into the plants, shipped to markets, passed through human bodies, and thrown into the sea or rivers as sewage. Lands became mineral-poor.

Still the plants grow; they look green and bulky but can no longer support optimum health. Bugs and worms and aphids multiply; Sir Albert Howard pointed out that bugs and worms destroyed only the unhealthy, the sooner to return soil-rebuilding humus to the land. It now appears that the soil molds produce aureomycin, streptomycin, and penicillin or similar antibiotics, which bugs, worms, and aphids do not enjoy; hence they will not eat healthy plants. Without sufficient humus, molds cannot grow to produce enough antibiotics; the insects come. Their destruction is costly to the producer. Every year more kinds and more pounds of sprays and poisons are poured onto our foods, now 800,000,000 pounds annually of arsenic alone. Arsenic is one of the many chemicals used to produce experimental cancer. Bees, needed to pollinate blossoms, are destroyed by poison sprays. Valuable bugs, needed to eat harmful bugs, are likewise killed. The poison sprays drop to the ground, dissolve in the soil solution, and are carried into the very core of all our foods. The housewife tries to wash them off, but no amount of washing can remove them.