In the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library Collection, they have a book written in 1899 by Oscar Loew on plant physiology titled; Plants Assimilation; Minerals. Even as early as that date, minerals in the soil were deemed important enough to study. In addition, as I have already referred to, Dr Murray began a study of minerals in the 1940s.
In 1942, J.I. Rodale began publishing a magazine called Organic Farming and Gardening.
“In 1947, J.I. founded the Soil and Health Foundation, later to be renamed Rodale Institute. As Rodale communicated the idea of creating nutrient-rich, contaminant-free soil, people began to listen and acceptance grew. With the 1948 publication of Rodale’s Pay Dirt, a book about links between chemical agriculture and declining public health, J.I. found himself the head of a movement.” 1
The Institute went on to establish a demonstration plot comparing organic farming with the conventional farming methods of today. After 40 plus years, they have been able to demonstrate that organic farming will produce an equal or better volume of crop and, during drought periods, will exceed conventional farming methods. Tests show that the crops have a greater percentage of nutrients and minerals.
“A full complement of soil minerals makes it possible for the body to self-regulate and self-repair its way out of most afflictions…Linus Pauling, the only person so far to win two unshared Nobel prizes, once pointed out that you can trace every illness, every disease and every infection to some mineral deficiency. Any mineral deficiency always means there are even more mineral deficiencies waiting in the wings. It is equally true that most of the major degenerative diseases have been developed in test animals by withholding or manipulating critical trace minerals.” 1 IBID.
Another source has this quote from Dr Marray:
“These soil minerals have been scoured from agricultural sites over the last two centuries just as surely as if they had been vacuumed out of a family room carpet.” 2
As you will find as you follow my train of thought on food, there have been many studies concerning health that the public doesn't know about, even though they are available for anyone to read on the Internet. These are peer reviewed medical journals that are posted around the world. Until industry can make money on healthy food, we will struggle to find this information and to see it applied. To encourage further research and application, note that there were numerous studies occurring when the agriculture industry began their program of destroying our lives. Just to start:
“The shocking absence of cobalt and chromium from New Jersey soils was recorded early last century by George H. Earp-Thomas. The issue of missing trace minerals and their role in plant and animal health …Many of the great professors of the 1930s and 1940s amassed agronomic knowledge right up to 1949, when toxic rescue chemistry became established orthodoxy and agriculture was sent reeling...” 3
I have spent a lot of time on minerals. It is not as though no one has studied these elements, the problem is that our food industry has little concern about minerals all the way from when the crop is developed to when the final product is on our plate. We need to know just how important these minerals are. Again from From Eco Farming Daily:
“The connection between enzymes and specific minerals has been made in only a few cases. The full inventory of knowledge awaits discovery...For now it is enough to supply a few notes simply to make the point that a shortage or marked imbalance of trace nutrients means malnutrition, bacterial, fungal and viral attack, debilitation and the onset of degenerative metabolic diseases…” 3 IBID.
As a final note, the hybrids developed were designed to grow utilizing the three main fertilizers we can easily add. In the process, these plants produce products that have not accessed the other trace minerals. In addition, because of the constant removal of product, many trace minerals have been depleted. And if that were not enough, Hybrids, which were developed in the fifties from Open Pollinated corn and from which the new GMO varieties were developed from, studies have shown:
“In discussing Open Pollinated corn versus hybrid corn, two samples were taken by a farmer from his field and showed the OP corn contained 19% more crude protein, 35% more digestible protein, 60% more copper, 27% more iron and 25% more manganese than the hybrid sample.
When his OP corn was compared to 4000 samples of hybrid corn from 10 midwest states in a single year, his OP corn contained 75% more crude protein, 875% more copper, 345% more iron, and 205% more manganese. The same trend has also been seen in the content of calcium, sodium, magnesium, and zinc. It could be said that the OP corn contained an average of 400% more of these nutrients.
Further testing confirmed the failure of hybrid corn to uptake certain mineral nutrients. Spectrographic testing at the laboratory of Armour's Institute of Research in Chicago revealed the hybrid short of nine minerals. The hybrid failed to pick up cobalt and any other trace minerals. The core of vitamin B-12 is Cobalt and a lack of Cobalt is implicated as a cause of undulant fever and brucellosis and Cobalt is the cure.” 3 IBID.
If you would like to know what has already been discovered about illnesses that develop because of lack of minerals, I encourage you to you to read Soil Minerals; Natures’s sunken Treasure for Health and Fertility at https://t.ly/C28Gk where you will find numerous conditions of our health that can be attributed to the lack of different minerals.
You might be aware that heirloom tomatoes are sought after because of their taste. Using the same methods that were applied to open pollinated corn, tomatoes and most other fruits and vegetables have been hybridized and along with the process, taste and nutrients have changed for the worst.
Organic farming addresses many of the concerns of healthy food. We have to go beyond organics for a full program. The fact that open pollinated corn has an abundance of minerals is seldom addressed. . We consider whether food is GMO, but very rarely mention open pollinated crops which include heirloom vegetables.
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References, Notes, 1 Rodale Institute Our Story
2 Permies Let's talk about soil minerals (soil forum at permies)
3 Echo Farming Daily SOIL MINERALS: NATURE’S SUNKEN TREASURE FOR HEALTH AND FERTILITY
Additional Readings:
Molybdenum is an essential trace mineral that occurs naturally in foods and is available in supplements. It is a component of four different enzymes in the body that help break down proteins, alcohol, drugs, and toxins. Molybdenum-containing enzymes also break down purines and sulfites. Harvard https://shorturl.at/lpsD6 and https://tinyurl.com/y2yxd77h
Beryllium occurs naturally in the earth's crust and in the air, soil and water. Every day, people are exposed naturally to extremely small amounts of beryllium by breathing the air, drinking water and eating food grown in soil. https://rb.gy/vspb6h