This was posted on Dave Klein's living nutrition forum; I thought it was worth posting here, especially Dave's conclusion paragraph at the end:

"Food is only as good as the earth it comes from..."

I've got THOUSANDS of articles and links saved on my computer, it could take me 30mins to find anything, LOL...

HERE ARE A FEW:

Is Agribusiness Making Food Less Nutritious?
[www.oasisadvancedwellness.com]

Vegetables Without Vitamins
[www.soilandhealth.org]

Today's Fruits & Vegetables Lack Yesterday's Nutrition
[www.oasisadvancedwellness.com]

United States Senate Document #264 (Congress meeting in 1936 discussing DEFICIENT FOOD BACK THEN!!!)
[healthenlightenment.com]

Cobalt for Soil and Animal Health (why people are B12 deficient, cobalt is gone from the soils completely... aside, I don't agree with 99% of Weson Price fnd)
[westonaprice.org]

A Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based Stewardship.
[www.nal.usda.gov]

Evidence-Based Nutrition and the Problem of Proof
[www.supplysideshow.com]

Mineral deficiency in food must be tackled, says expert
[www.foodnavigator.com]

Remineralisation vital for future of food
[www.nutraingredients.com]

Do a few searches to assauge your fears... The SOILS are shot, even organic farms don't have everything...

PS. Outside of people continuing and more so starting to garden and farm while using rock dust, sea water, Celtic sea salts, etc. to remineralize/revitalize the soils, which is a vital key, along with huge campaigns of planting ever more fruit trees, etc. all people have to do is take 2-3 svgs of a green superfood powder each day (Garden of Life Perfect Food is still about the top notch quality, deiversity, quality, value, about ~$1 per serving cost, etc) to get deficient Vits/Mins/Trace mins... then a Vit B12 and Vit D supp (for those who do NOT get outside regularly for whatever reason or who live far north with low UV levels..)...

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I purchased a couple of local bell peppers this summer and they had abundant flavor I could tell they were full of nutrients, but when I purchased some of those perfect bell peppers from the store and ate them they tasted like water in comparison to those little local peppers. What are we to do? I live in the country and can grow my own but in the winter fresh produce is not so abundant.

Re the green superfood powder: what proof does the manufacturer provide that the contents were all grown on heavily mineralized soil?

You are absolutely correct that "organically grown" means nothing except that artificial fertilizers and pesticides were not used. That is not enough.

Soil remineralization is the way to go, organic growing or not. A bit of pesticide used on mineral-rich plants is a better situation than organically grown foods produced on mineral-poor soils.

They say all great movements start at the grass roots level..As raw vegans we are increasingly coming to the realization that if we want produce that is petrochemical-free, organic, & chock-o-block full of enzymes, minerals, sugars, & starches (in other words, nutrient dense); then we are going to have to be willing to take on the task of growing a large portion of our yearly produce needs ourselves..And, not trust that others will do this for us..

As I've mentioned in multiple posts on several of the other forums here lately, the only way to know for sure if the fruits & vegetables that you eat have the proper nutritive value & are organic is to grow them yourself..All people need to do this, not just raw vegans..

The problem arises in that growing even half of the yearly supply of one's produce requires a commitment to the land & time that most modern people do not want to make..Quite soon I hope to be able to move onto a piece of land large enough (1-2 acres) that will allow me over the balance of my lifetime to grow my own fruits & vegetables organically so that I can feed my self & at least 10 other people for a year..What I do not grow for myself, I hope to earn enough income to purchase those things for myself..Or, to be able to barter & trade instead of outright purchasing them..

This will require a MAJOR re-structuring of how I currently live my life..A well run mini-farm, or very large garden must be attended to from the time you plant out in the spring until the final produce is harvested in the fall..My vacations will need to be scheduled for the late fall through the very early spring..The balance of the year will require that I not leave the garden for more than 1-2 days..Otherwise I will lose touch with what the garden needs..Things change daily, sometimes many times during the day..It is not much different than raising a child..Ignore it, and things start to go wrong..

The above scenario is not all gloom & doom..Once the mini-farm/garden is up & running smoothly (1-3 years) there will be ample time during the week to leave for short periods of time (3-6 hours) every day to pursue other activities..But, with a garden or mini-farm of this size, certain freedoms such as picking up & going someplace at the drop of a hat for days at a time will have to be willing given up..

This giving up of freedoms, as I see it, is the primary reason that more people do not choose to grow a substantial portion of their own food..Additionally, in the minds of most Americans becoming a large-scale gardener or mini-farmer would be a step backwards in social status..So many people define themselves by their jobs, & what those jobs allow them to purchase in the way of possessions..Being a farmer, regardless of how small scale a farmer one was, still carries a fairly large social stigma..And, there is no denying that farming is generally not a lucrative business, although a comfortable living can be made by many mini-farmers..

Any person that has been a raw vegan for any length of time intuitively knows that eating organic fruits & vegetables grown & harvested in biologically-active, fertile, humus-rich, mineral-rich soil are to be preferred to the same produce grown using petrochemical fertilizers & poisons..

The KEY to not needing poisons to control diseases and insects is biodiversity & crop rotation coupled to biologically-active, fertile soil that will produce fruits & vegetables with a high Brix content..Produce grown this way has virtually no appeal to insects as they almost always prefer plants in stress..Diseases will not effect healthy plants as their immune systems will shrug them off..

I'll repeat this again for what it is worth..

In my opinion, willingly ingesting petrochemical fertilizer & pesticide residues that are in & on produce, regardless of how minute those residues might be; IS NOT the actions of a sentient, thinking being..

What higher calling is there than to take a small portion of the planet & rehabilitate it to organic status while at the same time feeding oneself & others??..

Bruce



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2008 05:19PM by baltochef.

>As I've mentioned in multiple posts on several of the other forums here lately, the only way to know for sure if the fruits & vegetables that you eat have the proper nutritive value & are organic is to grow them yourself. All people need to do this, not just raw vegans..

The problem arises in that growing even half of the yearly supply of one's produce requires a commitment to the land & time that most modern people do not want to make.<

Well and fine, Bruce, but 'all people' are not able to grow their own fruits and vegetables; I don't think I need to go into all the obvious reasons a vast number of the world's people cannot just up and move to a place where they have a large garden or a farm on which to spend most of their energy growing their own food. It's not a 'lack of commitment' that stops them; it's a lot of factors, many of which people don't have too much control over.

What makes sense to me is that we look calmly and sesnsibly at 'what is' and work to protect the U.S.'s and the world's food supply. And if people are lucky enough to live in a town with organic community gardens like I do, then by all means, grow some of your own organic food. But don't judge people who are still going to the supermarket or farmer's market to buy their produce; it just doesn't make sense.

Sharrhan:


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