Regaining Ground

Rural Madison

High-Bionutrient Crop Production

Soil is a living, breathing, and self-healing entity made up of a complex web of living organisms. Uncountable numbers of bacteria, fungi, insects and protozoans interact with each other and break down and convert minerals from rocks into the compounds plants need to grow. In exchange, plants make a form of energy (sugars) by combining sunlight and water through photosynthesis.

There is a growing awareness of the benefits from increasing soil quality. The typical American consumer is not aware of how far the flavor, nutritional content, and shelf life of produce, dairy and meat have declined over the past sixty years. One cause of this decline is due to the physical loss of soils from erosion and mechanical tilling. Another is poor soil management and lack of understanding of how to support natural biological organisms. The greatest destruction of soils has come from the application of billions of tons of chemicals and poisons that have killed subsoil organisms vital for soil and plant health. Additionally, selective plant breeding has sacrificed appearance, taste, and nutrition for standardization and increased levels of production – quantity over quality.

Too often the food we eat doesn’t deliver the nutrition our bodies need to be truly healthy. Evidence is mounting that lack of adequate dietary nutrition is the cause of our rising rates of degenerative diseases.

Mineralize Madison is a simple program that will help growers test their soils and source, transport, and apply the right combination of minerals and organic soil amendments to stimulate the soil organisms that symbiotically assist plants in growing to their full potential.

Learn more at ruralmadison.org..