From sals@coyote.rain.org Fri Feb 18 16:39:03 1994 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 07:43:12 -0800 (PST) From: Sal Schettino To: sanet Subject: Micronutrition (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 05:21:20 -0500 From: Bob Cruder To: Multiple recipients of list GARDENS Subject: Micronutrition One major failure of the "green revolution" is a slow but consistent alteration in the trace mineral content of foods. Soil constituents break down at a fixed rate regardless of the amount of vegetable matter that intensive farming can produce. While plants require three macro-nutrients (NPK) and another half-dozen or so micro-nutrients, humans require more. Those extras are not included in fertilizer because they do not increase yield, apparent quality or market price. The resultant produce becomes more nutrient poor over time. The macro-nutrients that are applied in chemical fertilizers are produced by industrial processes that yield trace amounts of heavy metals which are not ordinarily present in soil. These potentially toxic materials have been increasing over time. The following numbers come from the November 1993 Journal of Applied Nutrition and compare the mineral content of commercial produce to organic produce (which is similar to that of vegetables produced before the "green revolution"). The percentages are averaged for apple, pear, potato, wheat and corn but would be similar for leafy crops as well. Element % Comment Aluminum 167 No nutritional use, implicated in Alzheimer's Boron 59 Required for calcium metabolism Cadmium 95 No nutritional use, carcinogenic Calcium 61 Required to prevent osteoporosis Chromium 56 Cofactor for insulin/glucose utilization Cobalt 100 Component in vitamin B12 Copper 68 Deficiency implicated in arthritis and CHD Iodine 58 Required for thyroid hormone production Iron 63 Required for hemoglobin/myoglobin production Lead 141 No nutritional need, neurotoxic Lithium 46 General need unproven, used to treat BAD Magnesium 42 Lowers blood pressure, cofactor in calcium use Manganese 36 Used in antioxidant enzymes, deficiency symptoms include premature loss of hair pigment. Mercury 133 Neurotoxic Nickel 60 No nutritional use Phosphorus 52 With calcium a component of bone Potassium 44 Deficiency causes hypertension, neurological damage and cardiac arrest. Rubidium 139 No nutritional use Selenium 20 Used in antioxidant enzymes, deficiency reduces protection against cancer, infection and age related damage. Silicon 54 Cofactor for growth of skin, hair, nails and bone Sodium 39 Deficiency not likely Strontium 43 No nutritional need Vanadium 93 Cofactor for insulin/glucose utilization. Can reverse type II diabetes. Zinc 63 Used in anti-oxidant enzymes. Deficiency implicated in cataracts, macular degeneration, loss of taste/smell and immune deficiencies. Extremes included corn with 6% of natural manganese content and apples with 1000% of natural mercury content. I suggest that even if worldwide food production can be made to keep up with rising population, (an unlikely event in the opinion of the Worldwatch Institute and most world governments) the quality of that food may decline to the point that mortality due to deficiency/toxicity exceeds that from starvation. Bringing formerly cultivated land back into use is likely to exacerbate the effects noted above since mineral exhaustion or pollution was what took it out of use in the first place. While organic farming methods can restore nutritional value, they cannot currently match the yield that the world requires from such staples as cereal grains. That yield cannot be maintained by current methods anyway. An International Rice Research Institute research farm in Los Banos found that yield from the best yielding rice varieties declined 40% in a 24 year period starting in 1968 using the best fertilization technique and in spite of improvements in the rice varieties during that period. The twofold solution is obvious, organic methods AND major reductions in world population. Neither will suffice alone. Bob Cruder - bcruder@miaco.com