Human health starts in the soil

Dr Arden Andersen
September 2006

The average consumer and the typical doctor, make little or no connection between
human health and soil health. Even though we have an entire industry built around
herbal medicines, nutritional supplements, diet, and lifestyle changes, most people
do not connect the logical dots between human health and soil health.

There are literally thousands of scientific journal articles directly correlating lack of
nutrition and exposure to pesticides with human illness. Everything from fatigue and
chronic illness to behaviour and birth defects has been linked to nutrient imbalances
and/or pesticide exposure. A priori, every one of these nutrient and pesticide issues
originates from a soil imbalance, soil health issue.

Nutritional supplements are very important adjuncts to a holistic health plan and I use
them extensively in my medical practice. The problem is that we cannot live by
supplements alone and, in fact, to achieve the ultimate health we all seek, we must
receive full and comprehensive nutrition via the food we eat. Figuratively speaking,
on a scale of 0 to 100 with 0 being death and 100 being perfect health, the best
supplements in the world will only get us to about 75 or 80. For most people that
would be great and IS great compared to the average person walking around today.

To get that next 20 to 25 points of improved health, we must have food - real food
with comprehensive and dense nutrition. Only when the nutrients are naturally
complexed in the tissues of living plants and animals will they provide us with the
nutrition necessary to gain that last increment of full health.

Unfortunately this is impossible today. According to USDA and British Ministry of
Foods statistics our food is 30 to 60% lower in basic nutrients today than it was 50 to
60 years ago. This decline has occurred in spite of all the technological
advancements in agriculture. In reality, it is because of the purported technological
advancements such as hybridization, genetic engineering, purified N-P-K fertilisers,
and pesticide chemical weapons.

The agriculture industry of today, called the Green Revolution, was the dream child
of the chemical weapons industry of WWI and WWII. No longer having people to kill
directly after the war, the industry looked for other ‘villains'. Weeds, diseases and
insect pests were the politically and aesthetically correct targets. The agricultural
chemical industry was launched. Out of this industry sprang the use of chemical
nitrogens, high analysis phosphorous and potassium fertilisers and, subsequently, a
plant breeding industry that selects and breeds plants that grow the greatest
volumes of product on these narrow spectrum, high analysis fertilisers.

As a natural result of using these fertilisers, weeds, diseases and insect pests
problems exploded lending additional prestige to the chemical weapons now
available to kill these ‘villains'. Any mention of comprehensive nutrition or
independent research along this line was suppressed. In fact, around 1950, a formal
policy was adopted at USDA and the Land Grant Ag Universities across the US to
transition from independent, publicly funded research to private, industry funded
research. Of course those that had the money for such funding were then and are
today the chemical weapons manufacturers. Recent reports indicate that as much
as 75 to 80% of all ag and medical research is funded and controlled by the
chemical/drug manufacturers.

It is crucial we understand that these poisons do not and never will provide nutrition
to plants, animals or humans. Following this point is the fact that weeds, diseases
and insect pests are present and sassy because the grower has created the perfect
environmental condition for them to be present and sassy. Over 70 years of chemical
weapons use on our food and soils has not solved one disease, weed, or insect pest
problem. Actually, we now have resistant weeds, diseases and insect pests in
addition to pesticide contamination of our food and environment.

Appropriate nutritional management of the soils naturally eliminates the diseases,
weeds and insect pests while increasing yields, profitability, food nutritional value,
taste, and shelf-life. Nutritional management for balanced soils also corrects
environmental pollution, soil compaction, erosion and enhances soil carbon dioxide
fixation to reduce greenhouse gasses. With comprehensive nutrition, our bodies will
have the nutrients to better detoxify the many chemical found in our environment and
in the current food supply. As soil nutrition improves, the farmer needs fewer and
fewer pesticides to grow the crop to the point where their use can be eliminated. This
is not just organic production because of a philosophical belief. This is biological
farming based on natural science.

Getting needed comprehensive nutrition into our diet starts with getting
comprehensive nutrition into the soil. A plant is only as good as the soil on which it is
grown. A plant cannot provide to the consumer any nutrition not present in that soil.

Doctors' admonishment to "eat a balanced diet" is a ridiculous testament to their
complete lack of understanding of what ‘balanced' means. One cannot make
something from nothing. If the nutrient is not in the soil, it won't be in the plant grown
on that soil, in the diet of the consumer and subsequently not in the consumer's
body. Thinking that you can get iodine, lithium, selenium, chromium, germanium, and
other essential trace elements by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables when the
fruits and vegetables are completely void of these nutrients is like balancing a budget
by spending more when expenses are already greater than income.

In order to reverse our slide into degenerative diseases and to be truly healthy, we
must focus on soil health. This means considerate re-mineralisation of our soils and
re-establishment of beneficial soil biology. It means demanding that farming practices
increase soil humus levels that allow more nutrition to get to the plants. It means
placing the emphasis on the nutritional density of the food we produce, not solely on
production volumes. And it means demanding that our agricultural systems make the
changes needed to create health in the soil. Our health rests on it.