Depletion by Natural and Man Made Practices

Depletion by Natural and Man Made Practices

Here is some great information from: The Nutriton Security Institute - www.nutritionsecurity.org
A non-profit organization dedicated to restore depleted agricultural soils, regenerate topsoils,
assure that the nutritional quality of harvested food will sustain human health

Nutrition SecurityHealthy, biologically alive soil is the basis for nutrition security for all people and every single organism on the Earth. Within our limited and deteriorating supply of topsoil is the foundation for the nutrients essential for human health and the health of all other organisms on Earth.
In the United States and throughout the world there is a widespread lack of adequate nutrition in both in the agricultural soils in which food is grown and in harvested food. A critical need exists to halt the alarming declines in the world’s supply of topsoil and to increase the nutritional values of our food.
SoilSoil is the largest living segment of our planet’s biosphere and the engine of life for our world. The microbial life within the thin top layer is greater than the combined weight of all other organisms on the planet. These microbial life forms are the engines of topsoil and critical to the production of nutritious food. The number of beneficial soil organisms in one teaspoon of soil....
The last 50 years has resulted in the destruction of over 50% of our supply of topsoil needed for food production. Extensive topsoil has been lost through the overuse of inorganic fertilizers, erosion and farming practices that deplete soil nutrients.
The nutrient values of harvested food are linked to the biological activity of soil microbes, soil organic matter, the mineral composition of the soil, fertilization practices and the genetics of the plant. Exhausted soils depleted of needed minerals and organic material cannot grow healthy, nutrient rich food. 80-year decline in the mineral content of one apple....
FoodFood grown in depleted, nutrient deficient soils lacks the nutrients needed to keep people healthy. The nutritional content of harvested food produced today is significantly different from the food produced seventy years ago. 80-year decline in the mineral content of vegetables....
The human body needs nutritious food to stay healthy. Food is the body’s main source of energy. Nutrients in food are needed to sustain life. Our diet, the food we eat, is the source of nutrients for all our body’s biochemical processes. The essential nutrients come from plants – fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and animals – meat, eggs and dairy foods. Traditional Diets Compared to 20th Century Diets....
While the nutrient density of harvested foods has declined significantly over the past 100 years, at the same time, food consumers are becoming increasingly interested in wellness and the prevention of disease. Change is needed to create incentives for growers to produce food with nutrient levels adequate to sustain the health of our families.

Food grown in depleted soil

FoodFood grown in depleted, nutrient deficient soils lacks the nutrients needed to keep people healthy. The nutritional content of harvested food produced today is significantly different from the food produced seventy years ago. 80-year decline in the mineral content of vegetables....
The human body needs nutritious food to stay healthy. Food is the body’s main source of energy. Nutrients in food are needed to sustain life. Our diet, the food we eat, is the source of nutrients for all our body’s biochemical processes. The essential nutrients come from plants – fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and animals – meat, eggs and dairy foods. Traditional Diets Compared to 20th Century Diets....
While the nutrient density of harvested foods has declined significantly over the past 100 years, at the same time, food consumers are becoming increasingly interested in wellness and the prevention of disease. Change is needed to create incentives for growers to produce food with nutrient levels adequate to sustain the health of our families.
Health
To maintain good health, humans need good food with both vitamins and minerals. According to the USDA, Americans lack the minerals, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and the vitamins A, C, D, and E. Without needed minerals and vitamins, research has shown that people develop chronic health conditions. More and more nutritional studies have linked many of today’s most prevalent disease to nutritional deficiencies. Changes in the Nutritional Content of Beef and Chicken....
Nutritional research has revealed the critical inter-relationship between vitamins and minerals and optimum health. Both vitamins and minerals are needed to maintain human health. We obtain them by eating food from plants and animals. Deaths from Heart Disease....
Minerals may be more vital to physical and mental health than vitamins. Minerals assist the body in a multitude of biochemical processes. Minerals are inorganic compounds found in the soil. Foods grown in soil depleted of minerals do not contain the minerals needed to sustain human health. Minerals go Down, Disease goes up....
“The alarming fact is that food – fruits and vegetables and grains – now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of certain needed nutrients, are starving us no matter how much we eat of them.” U S Senate Document 264, 1936

Below is a white paper link on a soil depletion study and US farming practices along with greater detail on soil erosion and mineral deficiencies.
http://www.nutritionsecurity.org/PDF/NSI_White%20Paper_Web.pdf

The alarming fact is that foods--fruits and vegetables and grains--now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of certain needed minerals, are starving us--no matter how much of them we eat! This talk about minerals is novel and quite startling. In fact, a realization of the importance of minerals in food is so new that the textbooks on nutritional dietetics contain very little about it. Nevertheless, it is something that concerns all of us, and the further we delve into it the more startling it becomes.You would think, wouldn’t you; that a carrot is a carrot--that one is about as good as another as far as nourishment is concerned? But it isn’t; one carrot may look and taste like another and yet be lacking in the particular mineral element which our system requires and which carrots are supposed to contain. Laboratory tests prove that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, the eggs and even the milk and the meats of today are not what they were a few generations ago.

A new study was posted only a few years ago, claiming that the levels of many nutrients in the soil was circa 50% lower than they were 50 years ago. Another new study confirms that fruits and vegetables are not as nutritious as they were 50 years ago. The info from 1936 was already quite alarming ("Many states show a marked reduction in the productive capacity of the soil…in many districts amounting to a 25 to 50 percent reduction in the last 50 years…Some areas show a tenfold variation in calcium. Some show a sixty-fold variation in phosphorous... Authorities…see soil depletion, barren livestock, increased human death rate due to heart disease, deformities, arthritis, increased dental caries, all due to lack of essential minerals in plant foods."). Even if these two studies are exaggerating or filtering away the not-so-alarming facts they found, there's no reason to believe that soil and plants contain a lot less nutrients now than they did, say 100 years ago. And: there's no reason to believe that this is true for B12 as well, but we have a separate thread about B12 levels in soil here.- where most of the info in this post has been taken from.There's great variation from nutrient to nutrient in the various tests showing how depleted the soil/plants is/are, and here's one of the most extreme examples (Source: Japan standardized Ingredients List):

Amounts of Vitamin C in 100 g of Spinach1950 = 150 mg1963 = 100 mg1982 = 063 mg1994 = 013 mg

1992 Earth Summit Statistics1992 Earth Summit Report indicate that the mineral content of the world's farm and range land soil has decreased dramatically.Percentage of Mineral Depletion From Soil During The Past 100 Years, By Continent:

North America 85%South America 76%Asia 76%Africa 74%Europe 72%Australia 55%