THE BIG
LIE
BY JEFF FRANK
In 1856 Justus Von Liebig, a top chemist in
Germany, made discoveries on which several industries today are based including
chemical ( NPK ) agriculture. Von Liebig’s discovery was that plants only
needed Nitrogen, Phosphorus and potash, which he could make with petroleum
distillates, so who would need compost or fertilizers from Manure’s? Twenty years after his discoveries Von Liebig
realized his mistakes and issued a “Mea Cupa”, that his conclusions were wrong.
However too late, the Genie was out of the bottle to do good or ill. Since then, chemicals advanced, as science
advanced with business including advertising.
Organics grew smaller and smaller as cheap chemical fertilizers and
their first cousins toxic genetic chemicals, were made available to the farms
and the growing landscape trade. The horticultural education was controlled by
chemical companies that controlled the colleges and universities, no biology!
You
see, chemicals are part of the armaments industry and in-between undeclared and
rare declared wars the nitrates that make up gunpowder with phosphorus and
potassium have to be sold. The big
chemical companies had congress declare NPK the benchmark for figuring soil
fertility, which is completely Bogus.
The Farmers got the so-called CHEAP fertilizer; the chemical industry
got rich, the Universities got the grant money to teach the chemical way. Organics went the way of the model “T” Ford
or so everyone thought.
What Von Liebig realized was the fallacy of three
elements that would be all the plant needed.
Plants need much more than three elements!! For growth to be healthy
need all of Earth's elements in some degree, and the Sun Moon and Star light
and clean water. Everyone thought the
chemists, scientists, schools, government and advertising (business) were
telling a true story on the effects of using chemicals. Its BIG BUSINESS,remember. It’s a BIG LIE!
We
have more pollution coming at us from every which way, from over-crowding,
solar and nuclear radiation, air pollution, sound pollution, EMF exposure, poor
quality water and chlorine and fluoride additives. (Don’t make instant ice tea with chlorinated
water because it makes the ice tea very toxic according to many studies.)
Chemical poisoning of our food that arrives at our stores sprayed with
chemicals from the farms both here and abroad, except overseas can use our banned
toxic genetic chemicals.
However
we should have greater choices as to what we spray on our property and expose
ourselves to when it’s unnecessary. The recent hysteria and reaction to spray
malathion for mosquito eradication when it’s a known fact that 99.9% of the
spray does not reach the target pest is a good example. We have many alternatives to weed, insect and
dis-ease problems. They are cost
effective and result orientated dealing in causes rather than effects.
Lets think about how we stay healthy?
We get our immunology from plants grown in healthy rich in humus soils,
a plant gets its immunology from those healthy soils rich in minerals,
microbes, and organic matter. As Sir
Albert Howard said, “ healthy soils make healthy plants which make healthy
humans”. It’s not a coincidence the rise
of dis-ease world wide since we got into heavy chemical use worldwide. Our soils are toxic and sick and it reflects
on our own health problems. So again on
one hand we have health problems and doctors and on the other we have expensive
organic food. Hmmm. I wonder which is
expensive now? Organically grown food
keeps us healthy!!
It’s
the same with organic lawn care programs; organic fertilizers cost more than
cheap chemical fertilizers. True!
However lets look closer at what we really have. On one hand we have cheap chemical
fertilizer, made from petroleum distillates, the same stuff that drives your
car. Its salt based, so you’re adding
salt to the soil so the roots have to avoid it, and actually it’s in a form the
microbes don’t like. The microbes have
to digest the chemical “TWINKIE” and the minerals are stored in the bodies of
the microbes. The plants root hairs
search for healthy microbes, pierce their body with a microscopic hair, suck
out the protoplasm, leaving the body to become humus in the soil. The
protoplasm that the plant gets from the Microbes in turn gets consumed by other
predators and this energy keeps being passed on up the food chain. When we are eating a carrot we are eating
microbial protoplasm, when we eat a steak we are eating protoplasm again in a
different form. Pretty amazing! It’s Microbes that all life depends on and
they are in tough shape! One extra pound of nitrogen given to the lawn will
kill a hundred pounds of soil life, so the” professional needs to understand
Dose “, as Theoprastus Paracelsus said along time ago. The soil is the stomach of the planet and who
knows how often and what it really wants? I know what it doesn’t want or
need. What the microbes does not eat
passes by into the ground water. The
plants that do get the chemical food stress out and grow too fast. This stress causes dis-ease to appear then
weeds and insects. Then we have to buy
the defense mechanisms for the plant; fungicides, insecticides and herbicides
are applied to get control, which can’t happen until you get rid of the cause
of the problem. As Dr. Albrecht said
“insects, weeds and dis-ease are symptoms of a failing crop, not its cause”.
The cause is simple, MALNUTRITION, the wrong food.
Next
the ground hardens up and thatch develops and expensive equipment and
procedures are now needed to control these effects of MAL-NUTRITION, from cheap
fertilizer. It’s the same as we humans
ate a diet of tastes good Twinkies, but is it good for us? The cheap fertilizer has some expensive
partners, what we call in business as the “Hidden Costs”.
Ok,
let’s look at the expensive organic fertilizer. Disease, weeds and dis-ease are now seen as messangers,
telling what is missing in the soil, what element needs to be brought into the
soil web. Dis-ease is only seen with adverse weather conditions, insects hate
organic soils and weeds are only seen as indicators of an element missing in
the soil. Read the weed and know the
solution, probably calcium. Then, no
thatching, aerating, and a savings in water.
The microbes in the soil do all the work for us and all we have to do is
manage them. It also works on any type
of soil and pH. So as you see the reduction of sprays, thatching, watering,
aerating, labor that expensive organic fertilizer is far less expensive by true
comparison. Best of all, it’s safe, with
a bio-remedial effect on the soil, cleaning up any toxicity. Your properties now will negate the effects
of air borne pollution and low pH rainwater. Pollution is now the driving force
in Horticulture today, effecting everything we do. Organics negates the effect of pollution on
our soils.
The
benefits of organic programs keep growing, the ground water recharges in a
healthy way. We bring back our shell
fishing industry and food source destroyed by red and brown tides caused by
pollution. As our soils clean themselves
up and the water cleans up everything alive benefits from these choices. Beneficial insects will make a comeback like
the common honeybee (Apis Milifera is Missing Aug. 1997). Bird of all types will stop their disastrous
decline. It’s a win- win situation! It’s up to us.
Organics
are cost effective and result orientated.
The proof is in the eating of the pudding. There are many organic alternatives that work
given time. TIME? YES! Your detoxing
your property, it takes time however not as much as it took to toxify it. With a good program a chemically dependent
property should still look good the first year. An understanding, informed
customer is a plus. How to get your neighbor/customer into organics is simple,
read, study, ask questions go to school and learn the organic story. It’s very
different and actually fun to learn the TRUTH. “ The truth will set you free
only when the untruth has exhausted its power to enslave us”
The
Military, Industrial, University Complex has fooled most of us with tainted
studies and results along with slick advertising. They have the money. However the Green Industry is learning about
ALTERNATIVES that make sense and finding both physical and psychological good
results. Psychological? Yes, the good feeling that one gets from
knowing your doing the “Right Thing” has a beneficial effect on us, the
customers, the employees and neighbors.
Von Liebig just did not understand the full scope of what he needed to
know, about trace and microelements and the biology of the soil. Educate
yourself, the truth is out there.
Vaya
con Dios