1
The real dirt on degraded soils and chemicals used in conventional farming
A degraded soil is a soil that is lower in organic
matter, soil microbes and nutrients than when it was first cleared
for farming. Continual use of chemical fertiliser, (especially in
large amounts) without quality compost and nurturing of microbes
results in unhealthy plants.
When people get sick, they need to be treated with
antibiotics or other remedies to get them back to health, and it’s
the same situation with plants. This means more chemicals to correct
the problems caused by the original chemicals. Degradation of our
soils is leading to sick plants that continually need to be laced
with chemicals to keep them free of insect pests. This is not good
for the plant or the consumer eating the plant.
The value of the food is its nutritional value, which
comes from healthy, microbially diverse soils. This eliminates the
need to use harsh chemicals to protect the plant. Mother Nature
knows best.
2
Is declining soil health related to increasing cancers and other diseases?
The average child receives four times more exposure
than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides
in food. The food choices you make now will impact your child's
health in the future. Protect future generations by chemical-free
eco-organic food with over 90 nutrients that the body needs to function
optimally. These include at least 60 minerals, 16 vitamins, 12 amino
acids and 3 essential fatty acids. The introduction of synthetic
fertilisers, which generally contain only three minerals (some have
up to 12 minerals) – phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium,
whilst beautifully promoting plant growth, do nothing to address
the depletion of the 60 minerals required for human health.
A summary of The United States Document #264 by the
US Congress back in 1936, states that laboratory tests prove U.S.
farm and range (rural) soils are depleted of minerals and that the
grains, nuts, eggs and even milk are not what they were a few generations
ago. The document adds that the people who eat these foods develop
mineral deficiency diseases which can only be corrected by including
mineral supplements in their diet… it also states that approximately
99% of the U.S. population are deficient in minerals.
All the medical research and billions of dollars
spent to find cures, have not halted the advance of killer diseases,
and yet Dr Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel Prizes stated decades
ago that: "You can trace every sickness, every disease and
every ailment to a mineral deficiency." Without these minerals
it is impossible for the regeneration process in the cell to occur.
None of the functions of the body can occur (properly) without ALL
of the minerals and trace minerals present.
Minerals are responsible for – tens of thousands
of bio-chemical reactions :
enzyme function
all mental and physical processes
hormonal secretion of our endocrine glands
biochemical activity of vitamins
the balance of internal and external pressures of the body cells
playing a critical role in the synthesis of DNA
regeneration of cells"
Extract from ‘Global Health Alert’ newspaper by ProActive
Health, Maleny Qld 4552 or go to www.proactivehealth.net.au
3
Organic tomatoes – Fruit Fly can tell the difference!
In Spring 2004, an organic tomato grower advised that the Department
of Primary Industries culture fruit fly larvae using only organic
tomatoes. This seems to be because conventionally grown tomatoes
contain chemicals that don’t allow the growth of fruit fly
larvae. If these conventionally grown tomatoes
in our shops are too ‘chemically treated’ for fruit
fly, why are we eating them?
All Nu-Harvest tomatoes will be grown on full
organic principles, plus the 73 different volcanic minerals and high levels of trace minerals, simply because
it is the best way to grow nutritious, and delicious tomatoes.
4
Is there more nutrition in hydroponic continental cucumbers or their
plastic wrapping?
You may think that hydroponic produce is better for you because
it seems "clean" and "fresh". But, it’s
what you can’t see that is the problem with hydroponic farming
methods.
Most hydroponic produce is grown in containers that are sterile
so as to eliminate the risk of any diseases affecting the plant.
To feed these plants, chemical fertilisers are used and the plants
protected by using chemical fungicides and insecticides. This means
that hydroponic produce is a chemical cocktail. Use of insecticides
is somewhat reduced if shade netting is used.
One of the major benefits claimed by hydroponic growers is that
hydro food production saves water because very little is lost to
the surrounding soil. However, when our soils have the right organic
matter, these organic matter particles act as huge sponges that
hold up to 20 times their weight in water. This is why soils with
the right balance are essential for good farming and preserving
our resources, as well as our individual health.
The reason that we should be buying food grown in healthy soils,
with quality inputs of natural organic matter is that we need soil
microbes to synthesize organic compounds (from organic matter as
it breaks down) and to convert them to vitamins and other valuable
nutrients.
Nu-harvest believes (and will test to show these differences)
that hydro produce has lower levels of vitamins and essential trace
minerals than fruit and vegies grown under a mineral replenished organic system.
Having begun business in June 2005, Nu-Harvest will focus its
research budget on analysing the differences in vitamin and nutritional
levels between our mineral rich eco-organic produce and other types
of produce available. Keep watching this space for more information.
5
Eating imported vegies is like playing Russian Roulette
You’ll notice certain produce that is substantially
cheaper than other produce. It is not clearly labelled so you won’t
know if it has been grown in Australia or imported from overseas.
You may be wondering why this is the case. It’s
because Food Standards Australia and New Zealand recently abolished
compulsory imported notices on unpackaged food because the labels
‘discriminate’ against fair competition under World
Trade Organisation rules.
Fruit and vegetable producers in countries like India,
China, the Phillipines and South America are able to produce their
exports cheaply because of the low cost of labour and production.
This food is grown without meeting Australian
hygiene and safety standards, so you may be eating a dangerous chemical
cocktail that was grown using human faeces as the fertiliser.
Twenty per cent of our imported food products come
from China where unhygienic farming practices include use of human
excrement from farm toilet blocks as fertiliser on vegetables like
cauliflower, celery and cabbages - all grown for export. Chinese
farmers also use chemicals that are banned in Western countries
– these include Dieldren, DDT and various organochlorins.
You cannot wash these chemicals off your food
because the plant absorbs them during the growing period, so you
are playing Russian Roulette with your health.
By comparison, Australian produce is government-tested
for 61 chemicals, but imported produce is tested by the Australian
Quarantine Inspection Services for only 25 chemicals. And only five
per cent of shipping cargo containers coming into the country are
checked. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Be sure about your family’s health.
Nu-Harvest guarantees that your family will
be 100% safe when you choose mineral-enriched eco-organic fruit
and vegies grown on local farms under very strict requirements.
6
Farmers, root-knot nematodes and soil biodiversity
Root knot nematodes are minute "worms"
that attack the roots of plants, so that the plant is not as thrifty
as it should be, or at the worst, it collapses. There are also "good"
nematodes that don’t do this, and they fight the bad nematodes.
When soils become over-fed with fertilisers, such that there is
little organic matter and very few good soil microbes, then these
"bad" nematodes move in to eat the only thing that remains
- the plant roots.
The solution? Use a quality compost that builds the
soil microbes that are there already, and that helps the "good"
nematodes work in favour of growing healthy plants resulting in
good food. Some call this biodiversity.
Soils that are rich in organic matter, organic carbon
and humus (these are the key particles that hold nutrient and provide
homes for soil microbes) provide sites on the soil particles where
nutrients can attach. These organic matter pieces also help the
microbes to increase in number and species, allowing real biodiversity
in the soil, so that when rain comes, the microbes and organic matter
hang onto the nutrition. They don’t get leached out of the
soil nearly as easily.
Mushrooms
belong to the fungi family, and, as such, require exceptional hygiene
and temperature control. Many conventional mushroom growers use
an organophosphate insecticide called Diazinon (developed during
World War II), as well as a range of fungicides to control the cobweb
(another fungi) that covers the mushroom growing medium. The fungicides
used for this may include the chemical products "Octave"
and "Spinflo"/ "Howzat". This means that mushrooms
grown by these conventional means contain a chemical residue that
can’t be ‘washed off’.
In direct contrast, the mushrooms
supplied to Nu-Harvest are guaranteed to be free of any chemical
fungicides or insecticides. We use cultural practices such
as pasteurising the growing media to eliminate the harmful fungi
and root maggots and so eliminate the need for any chemicals being
sprayed over the "growing beds".
Nu-Harvest mushrooms
are guaranteed to be chemical-free.
The chemical fertiliser companies around Australia
are more focused on selling fertilisers, especially nitrogen, which,
when used at high rates, actually oxidises or burns up the carbon/
organic matter in the soil. This leaves a soil system that cannot
sustain microbial populations that are the key for building vitamins
in food.
At Nu-Harvest, we have developed a system whereby
we apply a rich blend of 73 different minerals, of volcanic origin,
in combination with an abundant dose of quality compost, as well as trace minerals at 50 and 100 times more than other organic growers. We then use only organic approved sparys. By doing this we
ensure that the produce is nutritionally excellent, very affordable
and very safe for you to enjoy!
Nu-Harvest believes in :
Growing food with extra minerals AND compost so as to build
vitamins in food
NO systemic (moves into or across the sap stream of the plant)
fungicides & insecticides * Safe and clean food that is grown
the way that food should be grown
9
Soil humus… the key to healthy soils and healthy food
Soil humus is achieved by the microbial breakdown
of soil organic matter. This is a powerful plant growth stimulant
and is essential for building vitamins in plants.
Without soil humus, we incur :
increased nutrient leaching and environmental problems
horticultural and agricultural produce that is devoid of its
food value
soil diseases due to the fact that the good fungi & bacteria
have lost their home
soil pests such as root knot nematodes flourish because good
(beneficial) nematodes are absent
plants become weaker because the deteriorating soil conditions
grow a plant that has less natural immunity to its environment
Fruit and vegetables that are devoid of vitamin content
10
Is there anything better than organic food? YES! There is!
Krael’nikov, a Russian Soil Scientist in the
1930’s, demonstrated that you can achieve higher levels of
minerals and vitamins in plants by utilising the benefits of organic
matter that builds humus (we call it quality compost) with low levels
of artificial fertiliser. Humus is like tiny sponges that soak up
the goodness from the compost and make both plants and people who
eat the plants healthier.
11
If your soil is a pale colour… it’s probably sick!
When you visit the major horticultural production
areas of Western and South Australia, you realise how similar their
systems are to hydroponic production. Deep, fine sands without humus
are the major growing medium. Many of these growers are set up to
apply chemical fertiliser through the irrigation on a 7-14 day cycle.
This is basically hydroponic growing. It is an artificial way to
grow fruit and vegetables that lack minerals, vitamins and goodness.
The colour of the soil is a key indicator of its
health. For example, many pineapple farms around the Glasshouse
Mountains area of South East Queensland (and other farms around
Bundaberg) have been neglected due to prolonged cropping with pineapples
only; failure to return adequate organic matter to the soil has
resulted in what is often white sand which is extremely low in organic
carbon and humus. These are key indicators to soil health.
12
Franklin D. Roosevelt - a man ahead of his time
"A Nation that Destroys its Soils Destroys
Itself" – Franklin D. Roosevelt
It’s likely that Franklin Roosevelt had a greater
understanding of our soils than many statesmen of today –
he was truly a man ahead of his time.
One of the long term outcomes of continual reliance
on chemical fertilisers is that soil organic matter is depleted
due to the carbon: nitrogen imbalance. When soil nitrogen is too
high, the carbon/ organic matter is depleted. It is the organic
matter that is the habitation for soil microbial activity and it
is this microbial - organic matter fraction that reduces leaching
and utilises the nutrients more efficiently compared to when the
soil is devoid of good organic matter. It also affects the quality
of your food.
13
Soil fumigation + sick soils does NOT= healthy food!
There’s something wrong with this formula.
Soil fumigation (also called "gassing") becomes necessary
for conventional/ chemical farming when soil diseases become so
prevalent that the soil disease problems are greater in force than
the "good" soil microbes. When "gassed", the
soil microbes get blown apart and release nitrogen back to the plants
that are next planted into that ground.
Fumigating (gassing) is only necessary because the
soil hasn’t been rested adequately and/ or "fed"
properly with microbes or quality compost. It’s a real sign
of soil degradation. So, what are we really eating? Would you like
some soil fumigant with your vegies?
What you don’t know doesn’t hurt you…
or does it? Some of the insecticides that are allowed in "conventional/
chemical" farming systems are included in the table below
:
Look up on the worldwide web to find out the range of chemicals
that are allowed (registered) to be used on your food. Have a
look at the details for yourself. All of these (and more) are
chemicals that I would not like to go anywhere near my food. Nu-Harvest
growers must agree before the crop is grown to NOT use any of
these chemicals on the crops that they supply to Nu-Harvest.
Systemic chemicals sometimes also have an effect on pollinating
insects. What effect on us?
Chemical name / Active Ingred.
Comments:
systemic = moves up +/or down within the plant
Translaminar = moves into the plant & across the leaf
Insecticides
Confidor by Bayer imidacloprid
Very systemic. Very widely used in vegetable
production for a wide range of pests, especially since 2004.
Used in lettuce, brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage),
cucurbits (cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini, squash), common beans,
tomatoes, egg plant and okra. Derived from chemicals related
to nicotine.
Lannate or various other names. methomyl
Schedule 7 poison. Widely used and usually very
regularly in many crops. Not systemic.
Vertimec by Syngenta abamectin
Translaminar. Widely used in fruit and vegetable
production. However, crop residue shouldn’t be fed to
livestock but OK to be fed to livestock in shorter period.
Pirimor by Bayer pirimicarb
Systemic. After spraying with Pirimor, the crop
can be harvested after just 2 days.
Lebaycid by Bayer fenthion
Used on fruit in the field, but also used on
fruit after harvest for fruit fly when sent into Victoria. Fruit
dipped in Lebaycid bath and then packed, but on plant usual
period allowed to harvest is 7 days !!
Other
insecticides widely used
Talstar by Syngenta bifenthrin
Being widely used in vegetable production. Not
a chemical that I would like going anywhere near my food.
Diazinon by a number of suppliers
Less widely used than others above, but not a
chemical that I would like going anywhere near my food.
Fungicides
Ridomil Gold by Syngenta
Metalaxyl-M
Systemic. Widely used in vegetable and fruit
production.
Score by Syngenta difenoconazole
Systemic. Used on tomatoes and bananas and note
the short period to harvest !
Spinflo by Bayer carbendazim
Widely used in fruit and vegetable production,
and as fruit dip after harvest. OK to spray strawberries and
harvest after 2 days but when clover sprayed, then don’t
feed to livestock for 14 days !
Copper – many names
It is a heavy metal, kills (soil) bacteria and
sterilizes the soil (worms and other soil life) which can lead
to dieback eg in grapes. Our growers use it very little or not
at all and are moving towards genuine alternatives. Not systemic.
Tilt by Syngenta propiconazole
Systemic. Used in fruit production. Only need
to wait 1 day until harvest after being sprayed onto bananas,
stone fruit but if sprayed on ryegrass, must wait 4 weeks to
feed ryegrass to livestock !!
Amistar by Syngenta azoxystrobin
Systemic. Used widely, in a group called strobilurins,
most chemical companies have similar type product.
Octave by Bayer prochloraz
Systemic. Used in a range of fruit and vegetables:
regularly- semi-regularly in mushroom production. Can harvest
lettuce within 7 days of application but don’t feed the
treated crop to livestock !!
Scala by Bayer pyrimethanil
Systemic. Used in fruit and vegetable production.
Only 1 day required before harvesting after being sprayed !
Herbicides
Fusilade by Syngenta Fluazifop-p
Systemic. Widely used during fruit and vegetable
production to eliminate grasses from around the food plants.
Sertin by Bayer sethoxydim
Systemic. In some vegetables e.g. asparagus can
be used and then harvested after just one day !
Roundup by Monsanto glyphosate – many copies
Super systemic. Been shown to effect some soil
microflora. Especially on sandy soils it can move through the
soil and leach out. We use only half rates plus a specific foliar
fertiliser so as to get the same result with half the "active".
Atrazine, Simazine Trizine groups
Kills/ sterilizes many soils. Very leachable,
banned in many areas of Europe where ground water contaminated
but still widely used in Australia on corn, sorghum, lupins
etc.
In 2004, while explaining to a potato grower (uses Confidor in
his potatoes), that Bayer were seeking a permit for using Confidor
on lettuce, he and his wife were very surprised. They responded
"We wouldn’t like to buy lettuce that had Confidor applied
!". Check out the Bayer website to see the other fruit and
vegetables that are allowed to have Confidor "fed" via
the irrigation system.
15
What you don’t know doesn’t hurt you… or does
it?
The Federal Government’s National Registration Authority
(NRA) authorises chemical sprays that can be used in farming. They
use the term, Maximum Residue Level (MRL) which is the level that
infers that food will be "safe" for consumers, as long
as this level is not exceeded in produce. This pre-determined level
is based on tests done to show that at certain rates of chemical
used, ‘x’ amount of that chemical on our food after
so many days will be "safe" for us to eat.
All fruit and vegetables grown conventionally/
chemically have some level of chemical spray residue. As
long as this level/ value is below the designated reading, then
the NRA declare the food to be safe… but what about the fruit
fly larvae mentioned above… do they think it is safe?
What level of food safety do we really have if fruit fly won’t
touch these foods because of the chemicals on them? What are we
feeding our children when we say "Eat your vegies… they’re
good for you". Are they?
The soil fumigant, Metham Sodium, is widely used by conventional/
chemical carrot growers, a few weeks’ before planting, to
eliminate soil diseases in the root zone where the carrot seeds
are to be sown.
A horticulturist colleague and his family have compared the juicing
qualities of carrots grown this way, with carrots grown without
this soil fumigant. He advises that the carrots grown in the presence
of Metham Sodium cause him to vomit after one and a half glasses
of juice; the juice from the carrots grown without Metham Sodium
do not have the same effect. No soil fumigants are used in the growing of Nu-Harvest carrots.
17
Not so sweet… Australian honey with antibiotics in Australian
stores
Canada has recalled Australian honey containing an
antibiotic, Nitrofurans, from its shelves but Australian authorities
consider it is not a health risk even though the chemical is banned
here.
The Federal Government has promised testing of honey,
it still hasn't happened. And while Canada launches a recall, the
Australian watchdog (bowsie wowsie) does not.
Pure Australian honey is completely safe. Make sure
you read the label to avoid buying the contaminated honey. Nu-Harvest
will be providing high quality eco honey that hasn’t been
subjected to chemical or heat treatment and thus retains all of
the goodness.
18
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to increase food production?
Use of GMOs is sometimes based on the argument that
we’ll be able to produce more food. However, once again this
will be very possible when our soils are managed and built on organic
based systems rather than harsh chemical systems that stuff our
soils. When it comes to supply of produce to hungry people, most
of the problem is due to political and tribal agendas that prevent
distribution of food.
19
Would you like some delicious Round Up with your vegies?
Monsanto chemical company (of Round Up "fame")
recently (2005) bought the world’s largest vegetable seed
company, the Seminis Vegetable Group. Monsanto have used their "Roundup
Ready" (GMO) technology extensively, in broadacre crops; this
technology allows them to engineer the food crop (introduce a Round
Up resistant gene) so that when the whole crop is sprayed with Round
Up, everything dies except the crop planted by the farmer. I know
that I don’t want my food to be Round Up contaminated.
The fruit and vegetables that we supply will have
been confirmed as "GMO free" before we get them grown.
Mushrooms
belong to the fungi family, and, as such, require exceptional hygiene
and temperature control. Many conventional mushroom growers use
an organophosphate insecticide called Diazinon (developed during
World War II), as well as a range of fungicides to control the cobweb
(another fungi) that covers the mushroom growing medium. The fungicides
used for this may include the chemical products "Octave"
and "Spinflo"/ "Howzat". This means that mushrooms
grown by these conventional means contain a chemical residue that
can’t be ‘washed off’.
