Vegetarians Unite...And Make Delicious, Economical And Nutritious Food

[dragonlaurel]

Actually soils in parts of America are low in selenium. Sheep get sick in those areas unless it's supplemented. Here's a link that shows which areas. http://www.saanendoah.com/map1.html

Some farming practices also eventually ruin the soil. The later crops from those farms wont be that great.

Many crops are picked Early so they'll be firm for shipping. They don't get as much nutrtion as home grown would have the chance for. Mother Nature does a good job when you let her.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I just started reading Dirt, the Erosion of /Civilizations, which discusses this. I can't comment on the book, though as I just started reading it.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

P.S. Don't you wonder how they can figure out either way. Our knowledge of nutrients and technology is so much better now. Isn't like comparing apples to oranges? Perhaps, there is no exact way of knowing.

Basic nutrients (calcium, vitamins, zinc) we have been able to measure since . . . I think the '50's or so. Back then we didn't know as much about certain antioxidants.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Here is another article you might consider reading about nutrient decline in crops.

 

[big brown horse]

Yes dragonlaurel, I have to supplement selenium here for my horses AND sheep.

 

[DianeB]

Some of their soil was developed over 100,000 years ago. Remember that the ice ages didn't go that far south. Our soils were scrapped off from Canada by giant glaciers. In many areas the soil is less than 10,000 years ago. Also, are ecosystems and soil compostition are different. We store most of our biomass in the soil as hummus. Tropical forests biomass is in plants and animals. We are also more geologically active than many places and continually replenish our soils. Some soils in Africa, Australia and South America have been reduced to their regolith or C horizon. They no longer have their A or B horizons. These are the horizons that support crops.

This why swidden agriculture is commonly used in the tropics. They have to continually add biomass to the soil. They also can't use the same agricultural technology that we do. Could you imagine driving a giant tractor through brick hard soil? Most work has to be done by hand or by small machinary. Also, they can't use a plot for more than a year or two before it really goes down hill. They have to move on to another area. Concentrated agriculture is very difficult.

Aside from a few places in Central Asia, the US does have the best soil in the world. That has contributed quite a bit to our economic success.

As for sewage sludge in W.Africa, theirs does not go through the sanitation process ours does. Most of the time it is dried or maybe even composted. It is still has quite a bit a disease and chemicals. Even the locals avoid salads, peel or boil all their fruits and vegetables and make sure to know were their food is grown.

 

[DianeB]

Yes dragonlaurel, I have to supplement selenium here for my horses AND sheep.

That's because your soils parent material never had much of it in the first place.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Many of the chemicals in our sewage are not filtered out by biological filtration (which is typically all that we do with ours, if memory serves). Point being, these chemicals are ending up in our waterways and on our crops.

 

[DianeB]

Lets not continue to get off topic.

 

[big brown horse]

Yes dragonlaurel, I have to supplement selenium here for my horses AND sheep.

That's because your soil's parent material never had much of it in the first place.

You are right about that, this little homestead is nestled within an old, old forest. I had to add dirt woops, I mean soil, to make my in-ground garden out of a forest floor.