Jash Botancials
About 20,000 years ago, our ancestors ate a highly varied diet that supplied all of their major minerals, and the vast majority of their trace minerals. Even as they began to gather less and farm more, their fruits and vegetables still had significant nutritional value, since they were raised in naturally organic, mineral-rich soil, and in keeping with farming practices that returned minerals back into the earth. In fact, up until the days of our grandparents and great-grandparents, most people lived on farms or grew much of their own produce. Even those people living in the cities ate locally grown, seasonal produce that was cultivated using farming practices that helped ensure high mineral content, such as crop rotation, mulching, and manure fertilization. |
However, after World War II, farming practices changed radically. Manufacturers of wartime chemicals such as the phosphates and nitrates needed new markets for their products. These chemicals became the raw material for producing fertilizers. By 1960, 97 percent of all crops were treated with chemical fertilizers that used salt-based nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These quickly became known as the NPK fertilizers (K is the atomic symbol for potassium). While this method of farming created perfectly shaped and colored …