The Risk of Chemicals
 We
have chemicals in our everyday lives everywhere. Shampoo,
toothpaste, many foods, even our clothing all contain or are
manufactured with the use of chemicals. Besides polluting the
environment, the use of chemicals can be much more threatening. But
we’re concentrating on gardening and the use of these chemicals on
our food.
One of the prominent ways
chemicals are used in food production is through chemical
fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are quick-acting, short-term plant
boosters and are responsible for:
• Deterioration of soil
friability creating hardpans soil
• Altering vitamin and
protein content of certain crops
• Making certain crops
more vulnerable to diseases
• Preventing plants from
absorbing some needed minerals
• Destruction of
beneficial soil life, including earthworms
The soil must be regarded
as a living organism. An acid fertilizer, because of its acids,
dissolves the cementing material, made up of the dead bodies of soil
organisms, which holds the rock particles together in the form of
soil crumbs. This compact surface layer of rock particles encourages
rain water to run off rather than enter the soil.
For example, a highly
soluble fertilizer, such as 5-10-5, goes into solution in the soil
water rapidly so that much of it may be leached away into our ground
water without benefiting the plants at all. This chemical causes the
soil to assume a cement-like hardness. When present in large
concentrations, they seep into the subsoil where they interact with
the clay to form impervious layers of precipitates called hardpan.
Many artificial chemical
fertilizers contain acids, as sulphuric and hydrochloric, which will
increase the acidity of the soil. Changes in the soil acidity (pH)
are accompanied by the changes in the kinds of organisms which can
live in the soil. For this reason, the artificial fertilizer people
tell their customers to increase the organic matter content of their
soil or use lime to offset the effects of these acids.
There are several ways by
which artificial fertilizers reduce aeration of soils. Earthworms,
whose numerous borings made the soil more porous, are killed. The
acid fertilizers will also destroy the cementing material which
binds rock particles together in crumbs. Chemical fertilizers rob
plants of some natural immunity by killing off the micro organisms
in the soil.
Many plant diseases have
already been considerably checked when antibiotic producing bacteria
or fungi thrived around the roots. When plants are supplied with
much nitrogen and only a medium amount of phosphate, plants will
most easily contract mosaic infections. Host resistance is obtained
if there is a small amount of nitrogen and a large supply of
phosphate. Fungus and bacterial diseases have been related to high
nitrogen fertilization, and lack of trace elements.
Plants grown with
artificial chemical fertilizers tend to have less nutrient value
than organically grown plants. For example, several tests have found
that by supplying citrus fruits with a large amount of soluble
nitrogen will lower the vitamin C content of oranges. It has also
been found, that these fertilizers that provide soluble nitrogen
will lower the capacity of corn to produce high protein content.
Probably the most
regularly observed deficiency in plants treated continually with
chemical fertilizers is deficiencies in trace minerals. To explain
this principle will mean delving into a little physics and
chemistry, but you will then easily see the unbalanced nutrition
created in chemical fertilized plants.
The colloidal humus
particles are the convoys that transfer most of the minerals from
the soil solution to the root hairs. Each humus particle is
negatively charged and will, attract the positive elements, such as
potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, aluminium, boron,
iron, copper and other metals.
When sodium nitrate is
dumped into the soil year after year, in large doses, a radical
change takes place on the humus articles. The very numerous sodium
ions (atomic particles) will eventually crowd out the other ions,
making them practically unavailable for plant use. The humus becomes
coated with sodium, glutting the root hairs with the excess.
Finally, the plant is unable to pick up the minerals that it really
needs.
So, with chemical
fertilizers, in short, you have short-time results, and long-term
damage to the soil, ground water and to our health.
Another reason to avoid
the use of chemicals and pesticides is that long term use of such
chemicals can deplete the soil and leave it unable to sustain
further growth. In many cases beds of perennials suddenly stop
blooming for no apparent reason, and the culprit is often found to
be the overuse of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.
Chemicals that are applied to plants can often seep into the water
supply thus contaminating it. While it’s true, our drinking water
does go through a filtration process, it’s been proven that this
process doesn’t remove ALL of the harmful contaminants.
It has also been proven
that certain chemicals can cause diseases, birth defects, and other
hazardous health problems. All one needs to do is watch the movie
“Erin Brokovich” to see what chemical contamination of water can do
to a body.
Eating organically
eliminates, or minimizes, the risk from poisoning from heavy metals
found in sewage sludge, the unknowns of genetically modified food,
the ingestion of hormone residues, and the exposure to mutant
bacteria strains. It also reduces the exposure to insecticide and
fungicide residues.
It is certainly in the
best interests of the human population to avoid chemicals in our
food, but it’s also better for our planet as well. Chemicals can
affect the soil making it less fertile. They destroy important parts
of the natural eco-system. All plants and animals serve some sort of
purpose – even if that purpose isn’t especially obvious. By taking
these components out of the natural life cycle, we are endangering
our environment in ways we can’t necessarily see outright, but that
danger is there.
So it becomes obvious
that growing your food naturally is the best way to go. Let’s take a
moment and look at what exactly organic gardening is.
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