Originally published December 2 2008
Bringing the Culture Back in Agriculture
by Mike Donkers
(NaturalNews) After the turn of the previous century there was a lot of experimentation with mono cultures. By that is meant growing only one field crop, e.g. corn or wheat. This is a principle that goes against nature, which works with ecosystems based on synergy and complex wholes, whereby plants work together and support one another. Some plants root deeper than others, allowing them to uptake minerals from underneath the topsoil. When these plants die, their rich mineral content in turn fertilizes the soil. This is how nature creates her own cycle. On natural grasslands you will always find clover and herb species. Clover gets its minerals from deep inside the ground and the herbs fulfill a healing role in the ecosystem.
Mono cultures meant the end of the use of natural ecosystems in agriculture. In order to achieve higher yields faster, nitrogen-based fertilizer was developed. Encouraged by the success of nitrogen bombs in the First World War, scientists were led to develop nitrogen-based fertilizer for agricultural purposes. The funding came from petrochemical companies whose goal it was to make the national and international economy entirely dependent on gas and other fossil fuels. It is not surprising, therefore, that these powerful companies enjoy warm ties with the arms industry. Oil is a major waster of fossil fuels and many wars have been fought over oil. The Iraq war comes to mind as a recent example.
Seen in this light, chemical weaponry as the inspiration for modern agriculture doesn't seem such a strange concept. The scientists were told to figure out the minimum amount of elements to achieve plant growth. The idea was to maximize profits with minimal means. The NPK method was the result. The letters N, P, and K stand for three elements: nitrogen (N), phosporus (P), and potassium (K). Using only these three elements, it was not only possible to grow crops but also to do it at a very fast pace.
Through a clever propaganda campaign, a dependency was created on these synthetically produced fossil-fuel based variations, to which the chemical companies held the patent. Mono cultures and artificial fertilizer were hailed as the solution for the world food problem. No longer would anyone have to be hungry because we were now able to grow food on a massive scale. Who wouldn't want that? These days, however, we are seeing food and oil prices rising, and food and oil getting scarce. The world hunger problem has never been resolved, while the petrochemical companies have only gotten richer and more powerful.
Most readers here are aware that our soils have become depleted and acidified. How this came to be is not known to everyone, however. Let's continue with our history lesson. Though the NPK method was capable of producing large-scale mono cultures, the health of these crops left a lot to be desired. It appeared fast growth was not healthy growth, as these crops were attacked by mother nature's cleanup crew: insects, fungi, 'weeds', viruses, and other pathogens, among which cancer. Mother nature simply does not allow large concentrations of weak organisms to survive.
The scientists looked again to the weapons industry to find something with which to battle these 'pests' and other unwanted garbage men of mother nature. These became the infamous pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and other 'cides'. Their origin? Nerve gas. Originally they were nothing but diluted nerve gas (by now it may not surprise you to find out that the basis of chemo therapy is actually mustard gas).
By selling farmers artificial fertilizer to grow their crops and pesticides to fight off unwanted intruders, a disastrous cycle was created, which can only be described with yet another 'cide': nutricide, the killing of nutrients. Crops grown in this manner are mere holograms: from the outside they may look like food, but in reality these weakened, pumped-up crops lack nutritional content.
The one-sidedness of mono cultures and artificial fertilizer as well as the destructive nature of pesticides have brought about a serious depletion of our soils' mineral content. By replacing mother nature's rich menu of minerals with only three synthetic elements and by 'treating' crops with highly toxic pesticides at various growth stages, soils have been poisoned and exhausted. Humans and animals eating these crops will experience the same poisoning and exhaustion.
It's not as if we couldn't have known. In the 1930s, Congress had an official investigation done into NPK-based agricultural practices. The report, which came out in 1936, had alarming conclusions and has become known as Senate Document 264. It warned about a health crisis of unprecedented proportions if these practices were to continue. The highly powerful chemical industry managed to successfully lobby lawmakers, however, and through bribes got a majority of senators on their side. Document 264 was subsequently disregarded.
NPK farming and the pharmaceutical industry was then allowed to thrive. So was the incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other modern welfare diseases which followed as a result. Thus a system was created in which people were first made sick with non-nutritional, toxic foods, after which the same companies presented the 'solution' with medicines manufactured by their pharmaceutical branches. Chemical 'treatment' from the cradle to the grave. Why have we allowed to let it come this far in 100 years' time? We are now living the health crisis Senate Document 264 warned us about.
Since the 1970s these same chemical giants have been genetically engineering crops in order to gain patents on 'new' seeds whose genetic structure has been altered. Monsanto, which gave us Agent Orange and DDT, is leading this dangerous game. For years, they have been buying up seed stocks in order to genetically modify and patent them. There is no patent on nature, but nature reworked can, in fact, be patented. There is nothing natural about GMOs as only through pathogens such as viruses and cancer cells are they able to penetrate cells to alter their gene structure.
Monsanto is taking this idea even further. Monsanto's seeds are 'Roundup ready', i.e. they are resistant to their feared Roundup pesticide. You read it right, the seeds have been manipulated in such a way that crops cannot grow without being sprayed with Roundup, making the pesticide the fertilizer! Monsanto also has the technology to insert a so-called 'suicide gene' into their seeds, so that farmers can get only one harvest out of them, forcing farmers to buy new seeds each year. One cannot imagine a greater dependence on an industry which not only aims to control our energy reserves, but our food reserves as well.
The solution lies in the solution. For this, we need to turn to the sea. Maynard Murray was an ear, nose and throat doctor who worried about the worsening health of the average American, particularly cancer, which was a new but growing phenomenon at the time. He came up with the unusual idea of applying diluted sea water to the soil. His reasoning was as follows: in an unpolluted sea environment there is no disease, and plant and animal life gets to live at least twice as long as on land; there is no place richer in minerals than the sea, it's the 'soup of life'. There are 92 minerals and trace elements in sea water and 84 in sea salt, the supply is endless and there's no patent. I suppose by now you know why this is not practiced on a large scale.
Murray achieved spectacular results and tests showed his crops contained considerably more vitamins and minerals. He wrote a book about it in 1976, entitled Sea Energy Agriculture. Don Jansen, a student of Maynard Murray's, cured his Dad's cancer with ocean-grown wheatgrass. Wheatgrass contains a spectacular 70% of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll has a magnesium base and is 98% identical to hemoglobin, the protein responsible for building red blood cells and oxygen transport through the blood. Interestingly enough, sea water is also 98% identical to blood.
By growing wheatgrass using sea minerals and drinking the juice, you are offering two plasmas to the blood in liquid form. Sea minerals and chlorophyll are also alkalizing. In order to keep the doctor away it is essential that we mineralize and alkalize ourselves on a daily basis. Minerals and chlorophyll are the building blocks of life and contain life-giving solar and water energy, as well as RNA and DNA information. 70% of the earth's surface is covered by sea water and the 30% land mass we live on is predominantly covered by green plants, most notably grass. Nature offers it to us on a platter, but what's right in front of you is usually the first thing you overlook.
What's good for the soil is good for us, is good for plants, is good for animals. We are all one and share more genetic information than we think. Humans possess more fungal genes than human genes. No wonder the polysaccharides in such medicinal mushrooms as reishi, shiitake, maitake, and kawaratake ward off cancer in humans! It is therefore essential that we are good to nature and work together with her. We have taken the culture out of agriculture. If we're not good to our soils, we're also not good to our own 'soils', our liver and intestines. There's a direct parallel with nature. Chemicals don't heal, only nature does.
About the author
Mike Donkers is an English teacher from the Netherlands who started taking care of his own health in October 2006 because doctors couldn't help him. His interest in the connection between food and health has led to more in-depth research, particularly in the role sea minerals can have in the regeneration of cells. He is also a self-taught guitarist and singer. He is the songwriter and frontman of his own band, The Mellotones (www.nubluz.com).
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