PDC LESSON 4.1 SOIL – FOOD GROWS WITH CHEMICAL

 

PERMACULTURE COURSE AGRO-ECONOMY

PDC LESSON 4.1 SOIL – FOOD GROWS WITH CHEMICAL

 

Foods grown with chemicals

have different nutritional readings. They are not as mineral rich as our organic counterparts. This is because of some very basic differences in the way these plants are grown. All plants have two sets of roots. The thin white roots are the feeder roots, and the older darker roots are the roots that take up the moisture from the soil. As you see both sets have different functions. Plants like humans cannot feed directly of the minerals from the soil.  The plants’ mineral needs come from the cation/anion interchange for the minerals to become available to the feeder roots. This very complex set of circumstances is provided in the humus part of the soil and all the life forms associated with it.

Growing plants without the natural complexity of soil life, but rather by using chemical fertilisers, is to force feed them.

This is done by applying chemical fertilisers that have the minerals available in water soluble form. The water roots are then forced to take up whatever the farmer applies to the soil and the plant is then force- fed with the fertiliser. The overuse of urea to add nitrogen to the soil is a very real problem to our health. Vegetables that give off a lot of water are a symptom of being force fed by too much nitrogen. Large crisp looking cabbages and enormous lettuces that are chemically grown are full of nitrates that form into nitrites and contribute to ill health, and in the long run cancer. The entire metabolism of these plants is interfered with as they are giants composed of mainly salts and water.

Peeling chemically grown potatoes is a messy business against the splashboard in my kitchen; it always needs a vigorous wipe down after peeling them. This does not happen when I peel my own home- grown potatoes.

 Text from the roots, Elisabeth Ferkonia (Aus.) PDC studied with Bill Mollison,