Human health starts in the soil
Dr. Arden Andersen
September 2006
The average consumer and the typical doctor, make little or no connection between human health and soil health. Even though we have an entire industry built around herbal medicines, nutritional supplements, diet, and lifestyle changes, most people do not connect the logical dots between human health and soil health.
There are literally thousands of scientific journal articles directly correlating lack of nutrition and exposure to pesticides with human illness. Everything from fatigue and chronic illness to behaviour and birth defects has been linked to nutrient imbalances and/or pesticide exposure. A priori, every one of these nutrient and pesticide issues originates from a soil imbalance, soil health issue.
Nutritional supplements are very important adjuncts to a holistic health plan and I use them extensively in my medical practice. The problem is that we cannot live by supplements alone and, in fact, to achieve the ultimate health we all seek, we must receive full and comprehensive nutrition via the food we eat. Figuratively speaking, on a scale of 0 to 100 with 0 being death and 100 being perfect health, the best supplements in the world will only get us to about 75 or 80. For most people that would be great and IS great compared to the average person walking around today. To get that next 20 to 25 points of improved health, we must have food - real food with comprehensive and dense nutrition. Only when the nutrients are naturally complexed in the tissues of living plants and animals will they provide us with the nutrition necessary to gain that last increment of full health.
Unfortunately this is impossible today. According to USDA and British Ministry of Foods statistics our food is 30 to 60% lower in basic nutrients today than it was 50 to 60 years ago. This decline has occurred in spite of all the technological advancements in agriculture. In reality, it is because of the purported technological advancements such as hybridization, genetic engineering, purified N-P-K fertilizers, and pesticide chemical weapons.
The agriculture industry of today, called the Green Revolution, was the dream child of the chemical weapons industry of WWI and WWII. No longer having people to kill directly after the war, the industry looked for other ‘villains’. Weeds, diseases and insect pests were the politically and aesthetically correct targets. The agricultural chemical industry was launched. Out of this industry sprang the use of chemical nitrogens, high analysis phosphorous and potassium fertilizers and, subsequently, a plant breeding industry that selects and breeds plants that grow the greatest volumes of product on these narrow spectrum, high analysis fertilizers.
As a natural result of using these fertilizers, weeds, diseases and insect pests problems exploded lending additional prestige to the chemical weapons now available to kill these ‘villains’. Any mention of comprehensive nutrition or independent research along this line was suppressed. In fact, around 1950, a formal policy was adopted at USDA and the Land Grant Ag Universities across the US to transition from independent, publicly funded research to private, industry funded research. Of course those that had the money for such funding were then and are today the chemical weapons manufacturers. Recent reports indicate that as much as 75 to 80% of all ag and medical research is funded and controlled by the chemical/drug manufacturers.
It is crucial we understand that these poisons do not and never will provide nutrition to plants, animals or humans. Following this point is the fact that weeds, diseases and insect pests are present and sassy because the grower has created the perfect environmental condition for them to be present and sassy. Over 70 years of chemical weapons use on our food and soils has not solved one disease, weed, or insect pest problem. Actually, we now have resistant weeds, diseases and insect pests in addition to pesticide contamination of our food and environment.
Appropriate nutritional management of the soils naturally eliminates the diseases, weeds and insect pests while increasing yields, profitability, food nutritional value, taste, and shelf-life. Nutritional management for balanced soils also corrects environmental pollution, soil compaction, erosion and enhances soil carbon dioxide fixation to reduce greenhouse gasses. With comprehensive nutrition, our bodies will have the nutrients to better detoxify the many chemical found in our environment and in the current food supply. As soil nutrition improves, the farmer needs fewer and fewer pesticides to grow the crop to the point where their use can be eliminated. This is not just organic production because of a philosophical belief. This is biological farming based on natural science.
Getting needed comprehensive nutrition into our diet starts with getting comprehensive nutrition into the soil. A plant is only as good as the soil on which it is grown. A plant cannot provide to the consumer any nutrition not present in that soil. Doctors’ admonishment to “eat a balanced diet” is a ridiculous testament to their complete lack of understanding of what ‘balanced’ means. One cannot make something from nothing. If the nutrient is not in the soil, it won't be in the plant grown on that soil, in the diet of the consumer and subsequently not in the consumer's body. Thinking that you can get iodine, lithium, selenium, chromium, germanium, and other essential trace elements by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables when the fruits and vegetables are completely void of these nutrients is like balancing a budget by spending more when expenses are already greater than income.
In order to reverse our slide into degenerative diseases and to be truly healthy, we must focus on soil health. This means considerate re-mineralization of our soils and re-establishment of beneficial soil biology. It means demanding that farming practices increase soil humus levels which allow more nutrition to get to the plants. It means placing the emphasis on the nutritional density of the food we produce, not solely on production volumes. And it means demanding that our agricultural systems make the changes needed to create health in the soil. Our health rests on it.

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