GregP507
The Force is Strong With This One
As a life-long agrologist, I've become aware of a serious problem with our food supply. Trace minerals are being depleted from the crops on which we depend for food. A trace mineral is just as important for our health as any other critical substance in our diet. We need them all, and one element cannot replace another.
Before the modern age, lets say more than 75 years ago, most crops were fertilized with animal and household wastes, as well as others such as fish waste. This was a fairly complete nutrient cycle, whereby the elements removed from the soil eventually made their way back to the soil again. This has been going on for thousands of years in many parts of the world.
Since the advent of commercial fertilizers, they most-often contain only 3 or 4 of the major nutrients that plants require, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur. occasionally, they can contain a few of the trace elements such as: manganese, boron, copper, iron, chlorine, molybdenum, and zinc. These are added when the plants are showing signs of lower yields and/or reduced quality of the crop.
The problem is that what's good for plants is not always good enough for animals, humans included. Most plants require only about 16 elements for proper development. At last count, humans need at least 50 elements to remain healthy. Since the nutrients removed from the soil is no longer returned as waste, there is an ongoing depletion of many of the elements required for human health, in the foods we eat.
Medical advice which declares: "we get all the minerals we need from the food we eat," relies on research done decades and centuries ago, when indeed most food came from farms well-fertilized with household and animal waste. This is no longer true. The nutrient cycle has been broken. Most of the micro-nutrients have left the farms on trucks laden with produce, and has been deposited in landfills or flushed out into the ocean, never making it back to the farm. We are starved for minerals and we scarcely know it.
I wouldn't say supplements are the only answer. Foods should contain higher levels of all critical trace minerals, and organic waste should be returned to the land being used to grow our food. Laws dictate levels of certain vitamins and minerals in our food, but unless they govern all the elements of complete nutrition, illness and malnutrition will continue to plague our society.
Before the modern age, lets say more than 75 years ago, most crops were fertilized with animal and household wastes, as well as others such as fish waste. This was a fairly complete nutrient cycle, whereby the elements removed from the soil eventually made their way back to the soil again. This has been going on for thousands of years in many parts of the world.
Since the advent of commercial fertilizers, they most-often contain only 3 or 4 of the major nutrients that plants require, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur. occasionally, they can contain a few of the trace elements such as: manganese, boron, copper, iron, chlorine, molybdenum, and zinc. These are added when the plants are showing signs of lower yields and/or reduced quality of the crop.
The problem is that what's good for plants is not always good enough for animals, humans included. Most plants require only about 16 elements for proper development. At last count, humans need at least 50 elements to remain healthy. Since the nutrients removed from the soil is no longer returned as waste, there is an ongoing depletion of many of the elements required for human health, in the foods we eat.
Medical advice which declares: "we get all the minerals we need from the food we eat," relies on research done decades and centuries ago, when indeed most food came from farms well-fertilized with household and animal waste. This is no longer true. The nutrient cycle has been broken. Most of the micro-nutrients have left the farms on trucks laden with produce, and has been deposited in landfills or flushed out into the ocean, never making it back to the farm. We are starved for minerals and we scarcely know it.
I wouldn't say supplements are the only answer. Foods should contain higher levels of all critical trace minerals, and organic waste should be returned to the land being used to grow our food. Laws dictate levels of certain vitamins and minerals in our food, but unless they govern all the elements of complete nutrition, illness and malnutrition will continue to plague our society.
