Addressing Declining Food Quality - March 2006

 

Food quality today has declined substantially over the last 50 years.  A recent report by the Biological Farmers Association of Australia published the following;

“Reported in a British magazine in 2001 was a nutritive comparison between food in 1930 and 1987.  On average, carrots contained half as much calcium, the potatoes 40 percent as much potassium, the apples, apricots and oranges two thirds less iron and the tomatoes 90 percent less copper.”

 

Declining food quality is evident in the lack of taste and keeping qualities of produce.  Food that is fed by artificial fertilisers no longer contains the nutrients needed in a form that can be readily utilised.  Scientific studies have revealed that nutrient levels in food are directly related to soil health.

 

The solution to declining food quality is to restore health and biological life to the soil.  An easy to use, practical and commonsense way to achieving this is through implementing the biodynamic method of farming and gardening. 

 

The biodynamic method is recognised worldwide for the high nutritional value, superior taste and keeping qualities of all produce.  Biodynamic gardeners use a range of sustainable technologies such as crop rotation, fallowing, green manure crops, composts, mulches, micro-climates and companion planting.

 

Biodynamics recognises that the soil itself can be alive and that this vitality of the earth supports the life of the plants that grow in it.  This leads to revitalised soils and optimum health and productivity in the plants and ultimately the humans that depend on the Earth for their nutritional needs.

 

Biodynamic gardening introduces an obvious but often forgotten principle: gardening is about living things, life forces, life as such.  Through careful observation, one becomes aware of the complex network of living things with a constantly shifting balance.  Biodynamics is about cooperating with soil and sun and air and growth forces to produce nourishment out of the earth itself.