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From Mensagenda - January 2001
Blue River
Ray Voet
Survival: Food
My father, A.B. Voet, rented a farm in southern Kansas 60
years ago. The soil was not good for farming. Dad grew sweet clover and plowed
the green crops into the soil to develop humus and to allow moisture and air to
enter into the clay that lay under about four inches of topsoil. The clay was
called tiger [excrement] because of the difficulty of cultivation. I used the
clay to make pots, which, if left in the sun for a few days, did not require
firing to hold water. Dad quit that land after two years, and today the soil is
so depleted that cockleburs do not grow over eight inches tall. Cockleburs are
the model for Velcro and are a prolific weed.
Nitrogen is added to the soil by three major methods.
Lightning discharges fix atmospheric nitrogen, which is brought to the soil by
rain. Legume crops-peas, beans, clovers, etc. - use a symbiotic rhizobium
nitrite and nitrate bacteria soil organisms to synthesize nitrogen into
alpha-amino acids, then into proteins. Fertilizer, natural or artificial
ammonium nitrate, is a third process.
Carbon is the basis of organic materials. Chlorophyll of
plants and heme of hemoglobin have a similar porphin nucleus synthesized
biologically from glycine and acetic acid. The steps of synthesis by the red
blood cell and the plant chloroplast are identical. Heme contains iron,
chlorophyll contains magnesium in the basic structures. Chlorophyll takes carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere to build the carbon-based plant structure and gives
off oxygen.
Soils differ. There are the iron-containing red soils, the black earth with humus, the
laterite soils of the Amazon valley, and those that contain the minerals that give life or destroy it.
Se, selenium, is
needed in the diet, to assist the use of tocopherols or vitamin F. In the wrong
form, Se is teratogenic or monster forming, reacting on the DNA and cell
structure to cause malformed animals. Se can be deionized by bacteria, forming a
pretty red precipitate. Nitrates have built up in some ground waters, making
them unpotable. The soils are healthy or not, by the materials that the soils
contain.
I attended a conference on "Food and the Soul" at
St. Catherine\'s College in St. Paul, Minn., on December 1, 2000. Those attending
were involved in organic foods, in Native American food culture, in the
chemistry of foods, in developing safe food resources, and much more. We learned
that pesticides are found on the polar ice caps, therefore the drift involved
means that there is little chance of the desired purity of foods. I was asked by
several groups to provide information on agriculture and farming, for
traditional knowledge basics are being lost. If we do not respect the earth and
our biota, we suffer consequences in allergies, cancers, nerve and brain damage,
and much more. Of course, if one is interested only in "getting mine"
first, one must consider that there may be no "me" to get it.
We discussed basic foods of a region. Yet, review my
paragraph on differing soils. We are losing zinc, sulfur, cobalt, manganese, and
more as the soil is depleted. Also, monoculture, growing only one crop in wide
areas, can provide a basis for diseases of plants, such as the Irish potato
famine of the nineteenth century. I heard and saw the anxiety of those who find
that the perfect Eden they seek may not be attainable. How does one find
healthful food for the journey through life?
Intent or will, perhaps. Yet, will such effort change the physical
each other and ourselves. Where can one grow food without the poisons we fear,
perhaps from ignorance? Can we use living things to clean up the environment?
I know no truly simple answers, there is too much interaction. I have stories
of people, their fears, hopes, desires, and of how some have attained peace of
mind. We are part of the universe, and we are how the universe understands
itself. Peace, friends, and good foods. May we have celebrations and joy as we
learn of our heritage as part of the planet Earth.
And hugs, for we need them.
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