Composting Toilets and Other Aids to Sustainable Agriculture & Sustainable Non-toxic Communities |
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AlkalizeForHealth
"The doctor of the future will
give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the
human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease." Allan Savory - How to Green the World's Deserts and Reverse Climate Change 1, 2 Small farmer
Joel Salatin earns up to
$5,000 per acre
using
Allan Savory's principles. See Joel Salatin YouTube videos: Beavers vs. Droughts 1 Urban rooftop commercial greenhouse Trash to fuel - cellulosic ethanol Inexpensive greenhouse heat 1, 2, 3, 4 New way to grow rice may double yields. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) "Take 100 pounds of dry soil, 12 x 36 x 6 inches deep with 4 to 5% humus, it can hold 165 to 195 pounds of water. That is equal to holding a four to six inch rain. On the other hand, take a similar block of soil, 1.5 to 2% humus, it can hold only 35 to 45 pounds of water, which is equivalent to 0.5 to1.5 inches of rain." - Neil Kinsey, Hands-On Agronomy. Surface ponds and the ability of humus to absorb water like a sponge, combined with the transpiration of water into the air by trees may provide an alternative to storm drains in many areas. Violin sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach broadcast to a Canadian wheat field resulted in a 66% increase in yield. In India, music called Charukesi raga increased production of paddy rice by 25% - 60% and peanuts by 50% Bats produce sounds at 50,000 cycles per second (cps) and are the natural enemy of the European corn-borer moth. Broadcast of 50,000 cps sound to corn fields reduced damaged corn ears from 50% to 5%. The buzzing of certain insects and bird song enhances plant growth. Certain frequencies of sound
unique to each crop can: This results in Cows like music 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Paramagnetic rock mixed in the soil will enhance the Earth's magnetism and improve plant growth. Sensitive photometers demonstrate that paramagnetic rock emits light. Magnetite is iron ore of too low a grade to be commercially mined. Passing magnetite through a strong magnetic field in order to magnetize it and then mixing it with soil has been shown to improve plant growth. Volcanic ash and seaweed are mineral rich fertilizers. For millennia, coastal forests have been fertilized by the bodies of salmon after the spawning season. Spraying the soil with certain preparations of soil bacteria can restore life to lifeless soils. Tree seedlings planted in soil with live earth worms grew four times higher than seedlings in identical soil with dead earthworms. This sort of agricultural research is of no interest to agrichemical companies. Frequently, government research dollars require matching grants from industry which ensures that only research of benefit to industry gets done. Topsoil is eroding globally. Topsoil is the basis of civilization. Global warming or new ice age?
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This is the final page in our three page mini-series on agriculture to prevent cancer. This page discusses the use of composting toilets and other means to rebuild farm soils, plus we discuss some of the innovations in agriculture that help make the use of toxic chemicals unnecessary. We also briefly examine the construction of healthy homes and communities. Composting Toilets Can Help Improve Farm and Garden SoilComposting toilets may seem an odd topic for a web site devoted to cancer. However, if you read the Better Farms and Refractometer pages on this web site you will see that there is a direct connection between the quality of health we enjoy, the quality of food we eat, and the quality of soil on which the food is grown. "Organic gardening food seems to be the answer to the cancer problem." - Dr. Max Gerson Just as there is a hydrological cycle involving water evaporating from the ocean, raining down on the land and flowing back into the ocean, so there is also a mineral cycle. The minerals erode from rock and become the rock dust which, together with decayed organic matter (humus), form the basis of soil. The minerals are removed from the soil in the harvest and are washed out of the soil by rain. The rain carries them into the ocean. To maintain the fertility of the soil, what is needed is a way to close the loop and return the minerals to the soil. The most fertile soils in the world are flood plains. During the periodic flooding, minerals in the form of silt are deposited onto the flood plain rebuilding the soil. However, with the damming of rivers, building of dikes and other flood control programs, flood plains around the world are losing the benefit of periodic renewal and, like farmlands elsewhere, are in need of an alternative means of remineralization.
In China and other far eastern countries soil fertility has been maintained for centuries through recycling of night soil. Local merchants bid (with payment going to the city government) for the privilege of collecting night soil in cities and then sell it to farmers. Traditionally, farmers have placed night soil directly onto farmland. However, a consequence of this was the spread of parasites from night soil onto food grown on the soil. More recently it has become the custom to compost night soil before spreading it on the farmland, because composting destroys the harmful life-forms (bacteria, viruses, parasites) in night soil. Composting is the natural means of purification and recycling of human waste. So long as human waste is not mixed with industrial chemicals, then the resulting compost is entirely safe for gardens and farms. The result is that a significant portion of the minerals removed from the soil are returned. Composted biological material becomes humus. Humus is black in color, like coal, due to its carbon content (plants breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, incorporating the carbon into their own structure). You can judge the humus content of soil just by looking at the color and texture. Rich black soil has abundant humus. Long biological molecules in humus give structure to the soil, binding it together. Without the humus, soil would be dust. Humus acts as a sponge soaking up water and holding it. In this manner the humus reduces flooding, prevents erosion, and gives drought resistance to crops. (This is the real answer to prairie flooding - not dams, dykes and spillways.) Humic acid from the humus dissolves rock dust, helping to make minerals available to plants. The fact that the natural nitrogen cycle in high humus soils (5% humus) can provide sufficient nitrogen for crops is not a favorite topic for fertilizer sales people. Prairie soils across North America were once 4 1/2% humus. Now they are down to 1 1/2% humus. The inevitable result is increased flooding and erosion. In the United States, 4 million acres of cropland (an area the size of Connecticut) are lost each year due to soil erosion (US Soil Conservation Service). In the past 50 years half of the topsoil in the US has been lost. All waste plant and animal material must be constantly returned to the soil to be turned into humus.
Healthy soil consists of an abundance of minerals, soil bacteria, earthworms, and humus. Earthworms loosen the soil as they tunnel through. Air and water penetrate the soil via the earthworm tunnels. Earthworms emerge onto the surface of the soil at night and grasp a piece of plant material which they take into their tunnel to eat, thereby fertilizing all levels of the soil. Soil bacteria live in the gut of the earthworm and assist the digestion of the plant material. Plant material that has been fully digested by bacteria is humus. Humus is essentially the dead bodies of bacteria. Earthworms spread both the humus and bacteria throughout the soil and play an important role in the creation of healthy soil. Healthy soil will contain more than a thousand earthworms per square meter. "Actually the earthworm eats of the humus and of the soil and passes them through its body, leaving behind the casts which are really enriched earth--perfectly conditioned for the use of plants. Analyses of these casts show that they are some 40 per cent richer in humus than the surface soil, but very much richer in such essential food materials as combined nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. Recent results obtained by Lunt and Jacobson of the Connecticut Experiment Station show that the casts of earthworms are five times richer in combined nitrogen, seven times richer in available phosphate, and eleven times richer in potash than the upper six inches of soil. It is estimated that on each acre of fertile land no less than twenty-five tons of fresh worm casts are deposited each year." -Sir Albert Howard, Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease. Read this book online for free. Highly recommended! No farmer can afford to purchase and spread the quantity of fertilizer that earthworms provide for free. This makes the care and feeding of earthworms essential to successful farming. The earthworms need to eat, and fresh mulch is just what they need. One approach is to use seedbeds instead of rows. Each seedbed is about one meter or 3 feet across, so from each side you can easily reach to the middle of the bed. The seedbeds are heavily mulched in the fall, which prevents weeds from sprouting in the spring. The aisles between the seedbeds are grass that is mowed regularly, with the clippings scattered about for the worms to eat. These aisles are about 2 feet wide, just wide enough to kneel on when working on the seedbeds. Seeds are planted in the rotting mulch of the seedbeds, so no plowing is ever required. Never is bare soil left exposed to the elements, a situation that starves the earthworms and contributes to erosion. This no-till organic farming is economical because little machinery is required, and it is possible for such small farms to be productive virtually year round. Earthworms are easily killed by toxic agricultural chemicals. Agricultural chemicals are like stimulants. In the short run they seem to produce more. In the long run they destroy the soil, produce weak plants vulnerable to pests and disease, create inferior foods deficient in trace minerals, and damage the health of the community. Access to genetic materials from around the world has led to some useful "green revolution" victories. Hybrid plant varieties used today generally have a much higher yield than varieties previously used. However, many over-bred hybrid crops are now sterile, unable to reproduce themselves, and their increased bulk is associated with reduced protein and deficiencies in seven to nine minerals. Farmers grow these crops because they are paid by volume, not by nutritional content. However, why would consumers want to eat such nutritionally poor food? The answer is, they wouldn't, not if they knew. Now there is a new danger. Through horizontal gene transference, the reckless introduction of genetically modified crops threatens to change unpredictably both our food crops and life in the soil on which it is grown. The long term consequences of genetic modification of food crops is not known because no long term safety testing has been done. Most plant life on Earth is inedible by humans. The few plants we use as food are now being changed in unpredictable ways through the inclusion of DNA from viruses, bacteria, etc. Once released into the planetary ecosystem, these altered genes cannot be recalled. If there is an accident, the companies involved will simply go bankrupt. It is all of humanity that is taking the risk. Moreover, there is no benefit promised by the proponents of genetic engineering that cannot be safely accomplished by other means.
By improving the mineral and humus content of the soil, plants and trees have increased resistance to frost, drought, disease and insects, better storage characteristics, and they are more nutritious. Composting toilets have an important role to play in returning minerals to the soil and increasing the soil's humus content. Composting toilets were invented in Scandinavia in 1939 for use in national parks where permafrost prevents any "in-ground" system of sewage disposal. The waste remains in the composting bin beneath the toilet for about a year during which time it decomposes and turns to humus. No uncomposted material enters the environment. Flushing in "effluent" societies creates a false sense of cleanliness. Composting is an aerobic process during which the material being composted is consumed by aerobic bacteria. During composting, the volume of the material is reduced by about 90%. The 10% that remains is humus, filled with the minerals that were withdrawn from the soil where the food was grown. Animal manure in large quantity from dairy farms and factory farms should also be composted before being returned to the soil. This humus is a valuable resource and if it is properly recycled onto farmlands the quality of food will improve and the health of the entire population will benefit. Benefits of widespread use of composting toilets include:
The waterless composting toilet by Sun-Mar has a heater that evaporates liquids. The composter rotates automatically and finished compost drops into a container at the end of the drum. There is a constant flow of air from the bathroom, through the composter and out a ventilation pipe. Why not pass this outgoing air through a heat exchanger to moderate the temperature of fresh air coming into the home? There are many YouTube videos regarding composting toilets, plus much information on the Internet.
For more information see: Clean the bowl of a composting toilet with a brush just like a regular toilet, but with hot water mixed with baking soda. "Agrihoods" bring the farm to table movement one step closer to home. Learn more on the Internet and then start your own agrihood wherever you live. "Although our towns are fed from the countryside, little or no return of urban wastes to the land takes place. The towns are, therefore, parasitic on the country. This will have to stop. The wastes of these areas must go back to the soil." -Sir Albert Howard You can place your kitchen waste into an extra Vitamix container, add water, and blend it. Then pour the mix at the base of garden plants. Plant material composts faster when it is in smaller pieces, and the blended kitchen waste composts very quickly. Grass clippings can be spread around the garden as mulch every time you mow the lawn.
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution of a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein |
AlkalizeForHealth Circular integrated farming is "an integrated, 'zero-emission', 'zero-waste' highly productive farm that maximises the use of renewable energies and turns 'wastes' into food and energy resources, thereby completely obviating the need for fossil fuels. It is indeed a solution to the energy and food crisis that is capable of mitigating climate change, and more. It is a microcosm of a different way of being and becoming in the world, and in that respect, nothing short of a social revolution." By means of rotary hydroponic, vertical gardening and other systems, cities could grow much of the fresh vegetables they need. The breast milk of vegetarian women contains only 1 or 2% of the pesticides found in the breast milk of the average American woman. It can take as much as 21 pounds of plant protein to create one pound of animal protein. Using animals for food is a protein factory in reverse and leads to a concentration of toxic chemicals in higher levels of the food chain. Most food grown in the United States is fed to animals. If the food grown was fed only to humans, we would need only 30% of the present production. Over half the total amount of water consumed in the Untied States goes to irrigate land growing feed and fodder for livestock. Prey provide food for predators. Insects provide food for bats, birds and other insects. What is needed is balance in nature. Deforestation is occurring in the United States to make room for meat production. More than 3 times as much meat is derived from formerly-forested land as is derived from range land. Ex-forestland begins to lose topsoil rapidly due to erosion. At the present rate of deforestation, the US will have no forests left in 50 years. "We don't inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." Pennsylvania Dutch Saying "I equate the survival of our
humanity with the survival of the natural world; and the recovery of
humanity with the recovery of organic, sustainable and socially just
agriculture and agriforestry." For information on sustainable communities, do an Internet search for "eco village" and "Global Ecovillage Network". A difference between organic agriculture and Vedic agriculture is that Vedic agriculture harnesses the consciousness of the farmer to influence the weather, the seasons and other aspects of nature that are critical to the success of the farmer. Plus, Vedic recitations are performed during the different growth stages of the plants. The global fresh water supply is increasingly controlled by transnational corporations. The World Bank and multinational corporations seek to privatize water. - Project Censored 1, 2 "In their support for large scale
infrastructure projects, the World Bank and others underwrite giant
corporations with public money, and often incur the risk, while the
company reaps the profit." - Maude Barlow, Chairperson, People sometimes ask me, "Wouldn't exports of Canadian water help people in poor, drought-stricken nations" Unfortunately the water exports contemplated by the big corporations have nothing to do with helping poor people; the water would only be sold to the affluent. - Maude Barlow Cuba leads the world in organic farming. "It
takes about two kilograms of feed grain to produce one kilogram of
chicken. For pork, it takes three kilos of grain, and for beef, eight."
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"If we don't change the direction in which we are going, we will end up where we are headed." - Red Skelton Sources of information: Free online libraries of agricultural books 1. 2. Callahan, Ph.D., Philip S., Paramagnetism - Rediscovering Nature's Secret Force of Growth, Acres U.S.A., 1995. Callahan, Ph.D., Philip S., Tuning in to Nature : Solar Energy, Infrared Radiation, & the Insect Communication System, Devin-Adair Pub., 1976. Davis, Malcolm and Lis, How to Make Low-Cost Building Blocks : Stabilized Soil Block Technology, Intermediate Technology, 1994. Compressed soil blocks offer an economical building material with which to build your home's exterior and interior walls. Interior soil block walls are a heat sink to store heat and coolth, complementing your passive solar design. There are machines available to make compressed soil blocks. Do an Internet search. Del Porto, David, & Carol Steinfield, The Composting Toilet System Book - A Practical Guide to Choosing, Planning and Maintaining Composting Toilet Systems, an Alternative to Sewer And Septic Systems, The Center for Ecological Pollution Prevention (CEPP), PO Box 1330, Concord, MA 01742-1330, 1999. Fukuoka, Masanobu, The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming, Bantam Books, 1985. No till organic farming prevents erosion, builds the soil, removes the need for a tractor, and saves a lot of work. This may be the agriculture of the future. Gerson, M.D., Max, A Cancer Therapy - Results of Fifty Cases and The Cure of Advanced Cancer by Diet Therapy - A Summary of 30 Years of Clinical Experimentation, Gerson Institute, Binita, California, 1990. See Chapter XXIV "The Significance of the Content of the Soil to Human Disease" pages 175 - 185. Dr. Gerson recommended the use of human manure to rebuild soils around several German cities. The results were highly satisfactory, producing vegetables "greatly superior in both quantity and quality to those previously obtained by the use of commercial chemical fertilizers." Hazeltine, Barrett and Christopher Bull, Field Guide of Appropriate Technology, Academic Press, 2002. Howard, Sir Albert, Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease, Oxford City Press, 2011. Sir Howard's book can be read online here. Jenkins, J.C., The Humanure Handbook - A Guide to Composting Human Manure, Jenkins Publishing, PO Box 607, Grove City, PA 16127, 1994. Kachadorian, James, The Passive Solar House - Using Solar Design to Heat & Cool Your Home, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont, 1997. Every home should take advantage of economical, passive solar heating and cooling. By burning less fuel, you will save money and create less air pollution. Kinsey, Neal, Charles Walters, Hands-On Agronomy, Acres U.S.A., Metairie, Louisiana, 1995. Khalili, Nader, Ceramic Houses & Earth Architecture - How to Build Your Own, Cal-Earth Press, Hesperia, California, 1996. Every time we hear about adobe houses collapsing during earthquakes we think of Nader Khalili's book on ceramic houses. Adobe houses are beautiful and practical. In many parts of the world where the climate is dry and wood is scarce, most of the buildings are adobe. With their arches, vaults and domes even the roof is frequently made of adobe. Unfortunately adobe is heavy and dangerous when your house falls on top of you during an earthquake. Nader Khalili has found an answer - using kerosene burners he fires the entire house like a large kiln. In fact, he fills the house with unfired pottery and then fires the pottery and house together. With firing, the house turns to one large stone. It is waterproof, fire proof, earthquake proof, insect proof, will last forever, and is very economical to build and maintain. The interior can be sculpted to extraordinary beauty before firing and can be plastered or glazed. Malik, M.A.S., et al, Solar Distillation, A Practical Study of a Wide Range of Stills and Their Optimum Design, Construction and Performance, Pergamon Press, 1982. "Most of the conventional water distillation plants are energy-intensive and require scarce electric power or fossil fuel for operation; however solar energy despite being a much lower grade energy, is ideally suited for this job."- page v. The basic solar still is a sheet of glass over an enclosed container of salt water or brackish water. Sunlight through the glass heats the water and causes it to evaporate. The inside of the box can be painted black to better absorb the sun's heat. The glass, being exposed to the outside air, is relatively cool and the evaporated water condenses on the glass. If the glass is angled, the condensed water will run down the glass and into a trough that leads the fresh water to a cistern. Based on this system, the capital and operating cost of a water distillation plant can be very low and is easily scalable from small back-yard operations to as large as is required. See also the remarkable Watercone. Atmospheric dew collector.
Maitzner Laura S. and Martin L. Price, Amaranth to Zai Holes - Ideas for Growing Food Under Difficult Conditions, Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO), 1996. "Amaranth is a drought-resistant plant which provides both high-protein grain and delicious edible leaves. Zai holes use termites to improve soil fertility and increase water filtration in farmers' fields in West Africa. These are just two of the plants and techniques people are using to produce food under difficult conditions in the tropics. This book is an expanded, updated compilation of fifteen years of the technical bulletin ECHO Development Notes (EDN). Over 4000 people in 140 countries share their ideas and experiences through EDN as they assist small farmers and urban gardeners in feeding their families and making a living. This collection of ideas from around the world holds promise for places which face special challenges in growing food. The topics include vegetables, fruits, dryland and hillside farming systems, multipurpose trees, pest control, animals, seeds, and urban gardening. ECHO networks ideas, information, and seeds to help development workers and missionaries in their service with people who are hungry. We share information about plants and methods with potential to improve nutrition and income in the tropics so that field workers have more ideas to test in their communities." Mollison, Bill, Permaculture - A Designers' Manual, Tagari Publications, Tyalgum, Australia, 1996. Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems - edible landscaping - which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. (i.e. do less and accomplish more). National Association of Home Builders, Design Guide for Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations, NAHB Research Center, Washington, D.C., 1995 (Free PDF). This is the most economical foundation for your home. See also other similar free publications 1, 2, 3 Radabaugh, Joseph, Heaven's Flame, Home Power Publishing, Ashland, Oregon, 1998. Heaven's Flame explains the use of sunlight for cooking and offers suggestions regarding how a solar cooker may be incorporated into homes. Another thought for cooking fuel is hydrogen gas manufactured onsite by means of the electrolysis of water. Surplus electricity from solar cells and windmills can be stored in the form of hydrogen gas for later use. The storage vessel could perhaps be a small monolithic concrete dome (see www.monolithic.com). As homes, monolithic concrete domes are waterproof, fire proof, earthquake proof, insect proof, and TORNADO PROOF. Every school in tornado alley should be a monolithic concrete dome. Affordable. efficient stove. Robbins, John, Diet For A New America, Stillpoint Publishing, Walpole, NH, 1987. This book and the video 1, 2 with the same title are highly recommended. Robinson, Ed and Carolyn, The "Have-More" Plan, Storey Books, 1978. Living on your "basic acre" in your passive solar super insulated home, you can garden intensively, grow most of your own food, and be self-sufficient in nearly all respects. Build a "four generation" home, and each generation will find ways to help the others. Schaeffer, John & The Real Goods Staff, The Real Goods Solar Living Source Book - The Complete Guide To Renewable Energy Technologies & Sustainable Living, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, VT, 1996. See www.realgoods.com. Solberg, Gordon, Building With Papercrete & Paper Adobe : A Revolutionary New Way to Build Your Own Home for Next to Nothing, Remedial Planet Communications, 1999. Papercrete can provide economical insulation for a home. A super insulated home has R40 walls and R60 ceiling. Complemented by super insulation, passive solar generally offers all the heating and cooling you need. See also The Straw Bale House by Steen. Papercrete is much less heavy than straw bales, making it particularly good for roof insulation. Both papercrete and straw bales are surprisingly fire and insect resistant. See also Air-Crete 1, 2, 3 and HempCrete 1, 2, 3. "Passive house" requires minimal heating or cooling. Search the Internet for more information. Steen, Athena, et al., The Straw Bale House, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, VT, 1996. Straw bales can provide economical super-insulation for a home. See also Building With Papercrete by Solberg. Thick walled construction produces a deep silence in the home as exterior noise is excluded. Also, there is a freedom from fear and peace of mind that comes with knowing you will be warm all winter with minimal supplementary fuel or electricity. Windows in thick exterior walls are generally set lower and the interior window ledge is padded to provide a window seat and alcove. Thick walls cost too much unless you are willing to use innovative and inexpensive building materials such as earth blocks, papercrete, hempcrete and straw bales. Walls of earth blocks, papercrete, hempcrete and straw bales can be stuccoed or plastered so the appearance is as ornate as you may desire. Concealed behind an ornate finish, no one will know what is inside your thick walls, but everyone will appreciate the improved quality of life that they provide. Other interesting insulative materials include spray-in-place polyurethane foam, HempCrete, and Air-Crete. Tompkins, Peter & Christopher Bird, The Secret Life of Plants, Harper & Row, New York, 1989. Tompkins, Peter & Christopher Bird, Secrets of the Soil, Harper & Row, New York, 1989.
************************************************** Farmers wishing to make the switch from unsustainable chemical agriculture to sustainable eco-agriculture can start by subscribing to this newspaper: Acres USA - A Voice for Eco-Agriculture, P.O. Box 91299, Austin, TX 78709 telephone (515) 892-4400 fax (515) 892-4448 www.acresusa.com. Acres USA hosts periodic conferences on Eco-Agriculture which include seminars on various aspects of sustainable agriculture. Acres USA also has a mail order catalog of books on all aspects of sustainable agriculture. The Importance of Food SupplementsIf there is one thing people could do to help preserve the environment in the US and around the world it is EAT LESS MEAT. By moving away from a diet based on animal proteins we will help conserve topsoil, reduce water usage so that depleting aquifers can begin to recharge, allow reforestation to begin, get off the top of the food chain, have less toxic chemicals in our bodies, and be much healthier. Rebuilding the fertility of the US and world topsoil after decades of destruction by chemical farming is going to be a massive task. Composting toilets have an important role to play in rebuilding the topsoil on farms close to human population centers. Intelligent reforestation will also help. Most important is the move away from chemical agriculture that destroys the life in the soil, thereby preventing the creation of humus, making the soil susceptible to erosion, and thereby causing the incredible loss of topsoil around the world. It takes nature 500 years to build an inch of topsoil. This amount can wash away in a single heavy rainfall when soil low in humus is plowed and exposed to the elements. We must move to sustainable, health-building and soil-building agriculture soon or be faced with very real food shortages. Civilizations have collapsed in the past when they destroyed their topsoil and it can happen again. The "fertile crescent" in the middle east was once the cradle of civilization. The cedars of Lebanon are now a myth, yet once they were a forest covering 2,000 square miles. The whole area has become a desert and the main reason for this is the clearing of forest for agriculture followed by topsoil loss due to poor farming methods. As we follow their example the entire central United States is about to become the Great American Desert. For more information on ancient civilizations and their farming practices go to www.soilandhealth.org.
Toxic chemical agriculture is an experiment that has failed. Its legacy is a poisoned ecosphere, untold suffering and millions of cancer deaths. It has its origins in wartime nerve gas and chemical warfare plants that tried to convert themselves to peacetime uses, and the powerful business people who owned these plants. The move away from toxic agriculture involves educating the public and farming community regarding the reality that sustainable agriculture can work. Much more is known now about sustainable agriculture than was ever known in the past. If sustainable agriculture became a social priority, research budgets in this area could be quickly expanded. At present, most publicly funded agriculture research benefits the chemical and bio-tech companies. There is a political battle to be waged with the business interests who promote and profit from toxic agriculture and who's activities have become a public nuisance. The people of each country need to regain control of their government agencies and agricultural colleges that have sold out to well-financed "special interests" and become promoters and apologists for toxic agriculture and the consequent poisoning of the population. All of this is taking time. Now that you are awake to the realities, what are you to do? You still need to eat. Armed with your refractometer you can purchase the best fruits and vegetables available, but chances are that even the best will measure poor to average. The food just pretends to be food, while costing you real dollars. In this situation, particularly if you are already in less than perfect health, you need to supplement your diet with items that are rich in the nutrients lacking in food. How do you know what is lacking in your food? Unfortunately, it is probably safe to say that nearly everything is lacking. So the nutritional supplements & superfoods we have chosen to recommend are rich in all the trace minerals, macro minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and fatty acids that your body requires. |
AlkalizeForHealth Wild fish stocks world-wide are down 90%. Tilapia is a fresh water aquaculture fish that is fast-growing, short-lived and mostly vegetarian. It is quite healthy to eat and converts food to body weight on a one to one ratio, which is the most efficient feed to food ratio we know of. Asian carp are good to eat and are considered an invasive species in the Mississippi river system. If you like eating fish, do the environment a favor and eat Asian carp from the Mississippi. "Live simply so others might simply
live.
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