Soil, minerals and health

          My monthly reading includes Arces USA magazine.  This current issue features many articles about the health of our soils across the nation.  The direct effect of this subject is the all over health of our food and the minerals we are lacking because of the current practices of soil management.

          For centuries the fertilizer used to grow crop were tightly related to farming animals.  The soil was feed by the roaming of these animals or the distribution of their manure is they were housed or penned up for part of the year.  Now that principle is ignored by corporate farming industry.  The results are being linked to the increase of diseases humans are now experiencing and the lower nutrient values of field crops and the health of our meat that is consumed.  Tied to this thought is research that suggests that prepared feed, even high quality feeds, do not match the diverse minerals animals get from eating grass and weeds in open fields.

         Our food supply needs to be reorganized in a way that honors the traditions that protect the soil, raise healthy animals and plant foods.  All of this research shows me that the more I can eat out of my garden, the better my health will be.