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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Closed loops: homesteading, permaculture, biodynamics and more
  • Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:38:45 -0700


On Mar 10, 2008, at 8:52 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

This post caught me in a (thankfully) rare flight of pessimism. I had just
finished reading an article (http://www.theoildrum.com/node/ 3702#more) that
shows how the average yield of grains per hectare has gone from 1 1/4 tons
(metric) when I was a child to more than 3 tons now of days and it has done this
by genetic skulduggery and artificial nitrogen fertilizer.

The primary job of food is nutrition. You may recall that I have long argued that modern production methods increase yield but decrease nutrient quality and that organic--I just think natural--food production produces a higher level of nutrients in fruits and vegetables. I read the article you cite above. One of the reader responses pointed the way to this:
_______________________
Scientist concerned at plummeting nutrient levels
By Lorraine Heller

15-Mar-2006 - Nutrient levels in fruits, vegetables and some food crops have dramatically declined in the past 50 years, something that could further push consumers to opting for more nutritious organic goods.

The primary reason for the decline in nutrient content and quality of several foods is the way the food is grown, processed and prepared, according to Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas.

"High-yield crops grow bigger or faster, but are not necessarily able to make or uptake sufficient nutrients to maintain their nutritional value," said Davis at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in St Louis.

Full article at:
http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?id=66440-nutrient-content-minerals-antioxidant
____________________

Commercial fertilizers, think salts, make life very hard for soil microorganisms, which do more than any scientist has ever found. The most carefully designed commercial fertilizer does not supply all the micronutrients and life forces that a healthy soil community pumps out through its long-since perfectly evolved system of making nutrients available to tiny plant root hairs. Additionally, if micronutrients, all those minerals and more that are part of life, are not restored, then any soil will gradually become depleted of same.

There ain't no free lunch.




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