Most farmers never put back more than 8 minerals. In the first place, more than 8 minerals would be nearly impossible to obtain. Secondly, farmers get paid to produce maximum yield per acre, not maximum nutrition, so why bother with producing healthy food?
In Dr. Jensen’s book, Empty Harvest, he talks about how many of our illnesses are correlated with our improper stewardship of the land. Our immunity very much parallels the immunity of the land. Of special mention is that trace minerals are very depleted in our soils. Veterinarians have long since known this, which is why there are some 45 trace minerals added to dog and livestock food. They would much rather spend a few cents everyday than hundreds of dollars on vet bills!
www.tjclark.com.au...
Percentage of Mineral Depletion From Soil During The Past 100 Years, by Continent:
North America - 85%
South America - 76%
Asia - 76%
Africa - 74%
Europe - 72%
Australia - 55%
www.doctorwallach.com...
According to the U.N., worldwide some 25 million acres of prime agrigultural land are lost to erosion, salinization, etc., every year. Even in relatively healthy farmlands of North America, the top soil is slowly disappearing. About 1 mm is lost each year. And much of the soil that remains is losing its nutrients. Where the nutrient content of the soil falls, crop yields and nutritional value fall with it.
www.earthsave.bc.ca...
There are more than 30 studies comparing the nutrient content of organic crops and those produced conventionally with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In these studies, various individual nutrients in individual crops were compared, such as zinc in organic versus conventional carrots, or vitamin C in organic versus conventional broccoli. In the more than 300 comparisons performed in these studies, organic crops had a higher nutrient content about 40% of the time, and conventional crops had a higher nutrient content only about 15% of the time. Overall, organic crops had an equal or higher nutrient content about 85% of the time. These results suggest that, on average, organic crops have a higher nutrient content.While the overall outlook is favorable for organic crops, there is too little data for most individual nutrients to say anything at all. But for three individual nutrients - vitamin C, nitrates and protein quality – there is enough evidence to suggest that organic crops are superior to conventional ones. Compared to crops grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, organically grown crops generally have a higher vitamin C content, a lower content of carcinogenic nitrates and better protein quality.
www.price-pottenger.org...
Most of my hits were of marketing hawks trying to get you to buy their products. Even if this weren’t the case, I’d still feel the need to add one more voice – the voice of dissent:
What many people worry about is soil organic matter, which has nothing to do with mineral content. Traditional (organic) farming involved regular application of animal manure and this resulted over the years in a build up of organic matter. This improves soil texture, increases micro-organisms (which organic growers believe can improve crop disease resistance) and holds onto moisture better (reduces drought susceptibility). Modern intensive farming tends to use no animal manure. It was thought that this would result in a drastic loss of organic matter. Rothamsted Research Station have experiments that have been running over 100 years looking at various aspects of soil and nutrition (www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk). Their work shows a reduction in organic matter but nowhere near as great as expected because the much higher yield of intensive systems results in much larger amounts of root left in the soil when crops are harvested and this breaks down to soil organic matter.
experts.about.com...
