Unfortunately, modern chemical agriculture, with its disregard for natural processes and functioning, has upset the apple cart. The mineral content of fruit and vegetables (as well as that of wheat, corn and other staple foods) has declined dramatically over the past decades.

In 1914 one apple supplied the same iron nutrition as twenty-six apples in 1997. An average apple delivered 4,6mg of iron nutrients in 1914, versus 0,18mg in 1997 (Source: Lindlahr 1914: USDA 1963 and 1997).

During the 1992 Rio Earth Summit Report it was concluded that mineral depletion from our soils over the past 100 years totalled 74% in Africa, 76% in Asia, 55% in Australia, 72% in Europe, 76% in South-America and 85% in North-America.

"Minerals in the soil control the metabolism of cells in plants, animals and man.  All of life will be either healthy or unhealthy according to the fertility of the soil." (Source: ‘Man the Unknown’, 1912, by Dr Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize winner).

"Sick soils make for sick plants, and sick plants when consumed make for sick animals and people." (Source: ‘American Survival Guide’, June 1996, by Eric Curlee).

Because our soils are mineral depleted it follows that foodstuffs grown on them will also be mineral depleted and therefore fail to deliver the needed nutrition. Minerals and trace elements cannot be synthesised by the body and must be supplied by the food we consume. 

They have the following three main functions:

• They are components of many enzymes and other proteins such as haemoglobin
• They occur as soluble salts controlling the composition of the body’s fluids and cells
• They are important constituents of our bones and teeth.

International studies have shown that as the minerals go down, diseases go up. There is a direct correlation between the decline in soil mineral and trace element content and the increase in deficiency diseases. Nearly all non-infectious diseases that plague humankind are of recent origin.

The man who sums it up best, is Dr William A. Albrecht, Chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri, "A declining soil fertility, due to a lack of organic material, major elements, and trace minerals, is responsible for poor crops and in turn for pathological conditions in animals fed deficient foods from such soils, and mankind is no exception." Dr Albrecht goes further to unequivocally lay the blame, "N P K formulas, as legislated and enforced by State Departments of Agriculture, mean malnutrition, attack by insects, bacteria and fungi, weed takeover, crop loss in dry weather, and general loss of mental acuity in the population, leading to degenerative metabolic disease and early death."