Nutrient Dryland Soil Humid Soil
Potassium 2.44% 1.27%
Calcium 1.92% 0.28%
Phosphorus 0.78% 0.42%
Total mineral nutrition 5.14% 1.97%
Ratio of Potassium to Calciuim 1.20/1 4.50/1
Analyzed as a whole, these data tell us a great deal about how we
should manage our soil to produce the most nutritious food and about
the judicious use of compost in the garden as well. I ask you to
refer back to these three small charts as I point out a number of
conclusions that can be drawn from them.
The basic nutritional problem that all animals have is not about
finding energy food, but how to intake enough vitamins, minerals and
usable proteins. What limits our ability to intake nutrients is the
amount of bulk we can process--or the number of calories in the
food. With cows, for example, bulk is the limiter. The cow will
completely fill her digestive tract at all times and will process
all the vegetation she can digest every day of her life. Her health
depends on the amount of nutrition in that bulk. With humans, our
modern lifestyle limits most of us to consuming 1,500 to 1,800
calories a day. Our health depends on the amount of nutrients coming
along with those calories.
So I write the fundamental equation for human health as follows: