Crop Services
International, Inc.
1718
616-246-7933
/ 800-260-7933
pawheeler@cropservicesintl.com
CSI GROWER GRAZIER eNEWSLETTER
July 2010
THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO
ROOST: The President’s Cancer Panel, established in 1971, is
sounding the alarm bell about chemicals in our daily lives, including those
coming from conventional agriculture. The panel is at the top of the “medical
mainstream” and not part of the Organic or Sustainable Ag movement. The three
person panel has one vacancy at this time and the other two professionals were
appointed by President George W. Bush. They want to let people know they are
concerned about chemicals from all sources and they are stating that we should
be concerned. They are concerned about the increasing rates of cancer, obesity,
diabetes and autism in children and adults. Research shows our children are
born pre-polluted and then mother’s milk usually provides a further dose of up
to 200 or more manmade chemicals. However, mother’s milk is still preferred
over a synthetic formula. The final statement in the panel’s letter to the
President is as follows: “The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of
your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water and
air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s
productivity, and devastate American lives.”
As you must realize, this is quite a
breakthrough in our fight for clean air, food and water. The report blames weak
laws, lax enforcement and fragmented authority. Sound familiar? Since WW II
there has been an attitude that since these new chemical molecules are used in
industry, agriculture and consumer goods, they must be safe unless proven otherwise.
Deliberately moving farmers off the farm and into the cities/factories and
growing the country’s economy was the main emphasis. Anyone who questioned any
sort of “progress” that involved making money was considered “anti-American”.
There were scientists that warned about the chemicals, but little heed was paid
until enough wildlife damage was done to prompt the research and publication of
Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring in
1962.
A great deal of good bio-physics research
was done in the 70’s which began to discover the true “nature of nature” or how
all living things function. A single living cell is complicated enough to be
compared to a factory making autos. As many electro-chemical transactions take
place in each cell as in the auto factory. When you walk into a factory, you
experience noise, smells, sparks, heat, etc. These are all indications of
inefficiency. If you could walk into a cell, all you would experience would be
silence, as the thousands of transactions per second are 100% efficient.
When you combine cells to make
organisms such as plants, animals and us humans, 100% efficiency is maintained
with total electromagnetic integration of the cells complete with instant
communication to all other cells in the organism. Each cell uses water
molecules as wave guides for internal transmission as well as electron clouds
for the instant whole body interaction/communication. Moving ionized calcium
and other minerals either way across a cell membrane is the major way of
passing “information”. Biophysicists have documented that all living things are
very sensitive to electronic, radioactive and chemical contaminants because of
the way they are organized and function. The contaminants destroy the
efficiency, opening the organism to diseases. Human systems affected include
the endocrine (hormones), neurological and immune. No wonder we are sick!
This government report is nothing
less than a “Call to Arms”! We must stop the increasing number and amounts of
manmade chemicals and radiation sources introduced to our daily lives by air,
water, electronics, medical procedures & devices, packaging and food so
that our national health doesn’t continue to decline and our sickness costs
continue to rise. We already know that the major cause of personal bankruptcy
is medical costs. The country could be bankrupt by the process. This is not a
statement against universal health care.
It is a statement that we need to have the political and personal will
to change several paradigms to stop the declining health and increasing cost of
sickness. Since this is an agricultural newsletter, we will concentrate on that
topic. However, if I was “King for a Day”, I would ban all lawn and garden
chemicals immediately and take several other actions that would probably get me
hung.
We can no longer afford to use the
old excuse that you can’t stop making or selling a product or process because,
“jobs will be lost” or “a stock price will go down”. When you calculate the
actual cost of contamination, lack of nutrition, sickness and sickness care and
special education services, the drain on the economy is far greater than a loss
of a specific product or industry. The country didn’t go broke when cars and
trucks replaced horses and it won’t go broke when solar panels and wind
turbines replace some coal fired plants. The economy will actually improve as
we move toward sustainability and reduction of toxicity in the environment.
The world has the technology and inputs (both
naturally occurring and processed) to do away with the need for almost all
pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and still grow an equal or greater amount
of food with more life-giving nutrition.
If a rescue product is needed, there are organic versions available.
The problem is that the majority of
growers have never heard this and probably wouldn’t believe it if they did.
That puts a great deal of responsibility on you, my readers. If you walk the
walk, you also need to talk the talk. You are far more influential with your
neighbors (farmers & consumers) than most other sources of information.
However, there are powerful sources working against all our attempts to change
the paradigm. The most powerful ones are just human nature, peer pressure and
fear of change or the unknown. The other powerful forces are commercial and
institutional. The pesticide industry is huge. It will take years, if ever, to
shut it down. Many universities still have vested interest in researching
pesticides, but happily, they now also have researchers working on non-toxic
strategies to deal with weeds, disease and insects.
There is a growing public movement
that wants healthy food grown in a healthy way. They may not understand all the
intricacies of organic, sustainable, natural, free range, grass fed, etc. but
they do like the idea of “locally grown” and “chemical free” which most
interpret to be “organic”. They don’t want chemicals in their food supply and
they don’t want the produce shipped across the
We all have a moral imperative to
change the paradigm in any way we can. Operating an agricultural paradigm based
on largely false premises that require rescue chemistry automatically gives you
a contaminated food, water and air system – all rainfall contains pesticides.
Operating a health system without correcting the nutritional and contamination
problems simply doesn’t work. This leaves a “sickness” system that also tends
to ignore and be unaware of the nature of nature (especially in the “war on
cancer”). The sickness system keeps trying to use more expensive electronic
equipment or find a new drug as a magic bullet. Neither the agricultural system
nor the sickness system is sustainable. I fear for my grandchildren. Do an “old
man” a favor! HELP CHANGE THE PARADIGMS!
Now that I have made the bold
statement above about the technology and products being available for a
sustainable agriculture, what are they? The following are attempts at answers
to those who say it can’t be done.
BUT FIRST: Please email Ron pawheeler@cropservicesintl.com to receive an email copy of this newsletter! Save
a tree!
MINERALS ARE THE BASIS OF LIFE: As
such they are the key to a crops’ nutritional content. Most countries have
mineral rich, rock deposits that can be used to replenish broad spectrum
minerals. Even those deposits with only 3-7% K such as the old Hybrotite [granite dust] product mined in
When I did volunteer agricultural
consulting work in northern
If all else fails, using fish,
seaweed, seawater, compost/manure, intensive grazing, multi species grazing,
cover crops, food processing residues and composted plant material over a
longer period of time will gradually rebuild the soils from a mineral
standpoint. Remember, each plant, weed or otherwise, is an antenna picking up
minerals from the air and putting them back in the soil, even if harvested and
fed to livestock, it comes back in the manure.
SOIL MICROORGANISMS MAKE THE WHOLE
SYSTEM SUSTAINABLE: Microbes make the minerals available to the growing crop.
Just stopping the use of rescue chemicals can start the process of biological
recovery. To speed up the process, there are literally hundreds of biological
products and stimulants available in the market place. Those who can’t afford
to purchase packaged microbes can be taught to brew microbes in buckets using
darker, fungi laden soils located under leaf mulches while adding compost,
manures, fish, seaweed and carbohydrates/sugars. For more sophisticated
methods, see the article Inputs &
Uses by Jackie Prell in July 2010 AcresUSA.
If philanthropy can provide and teach subsistence level societies how to use
solar mud ovens, mosquito netting, pedal driven water pumps, outhouses, etc.,
then it would be just as easy to dispense packets that can be put into a
compost pile or bucket! Recipients can be taught to save a small amount of “mother”
to start the next batch of compost with.
ALL PLANTS NEED NITROGEN: You can
produce all the nitrogen you need from the air using the microbes that already
exist in nature. Over thirty years of research in
One of the interesting observations
about naturally “fixed” N from the air is the difference in plant reaction.
Growers report a different “greening up” than observed when applying chemical N
which produces the dark green of conventional Ag (see TESTIMONIALS below).
There are several possibilities for these observations. One would be because of
the fact that the nitrogen fixing organisms in our Bioplin and NutriFoliar
products from Blooming Blossom also produce B and E vitamins and other growth
stimulants on the leaf surface. Another explanation would be that the N
molecules fixed by the organism have a different structure/frequency than a
manufactured molecule of N. Plants recognizes sources of N that will resonate
with their basic frequency and also ones that will require the use of the least
amount of plant energy. Plants will pass up chemically produced nitrate and
ammonium in favor of amino acid or protein based N any time it is available.
PHOSPHOROUS IS A PROBLEM: As we
know, P is critical to building sugars/brix but the world’s supply of P has
peaked. Mycorrhizea fungi do better with moderate amounts of P. Phosphorous
solublizing microbes combined with mycorrhizea usually does away with the need
for manufactured starters containing soluble/available P. Indian research has
already proven this using phosphorous releasing bacteria as a replacement for
starter fertilizer on fruits, flowers and vegetables which are high users of P
as well as on field crops. Natural sources of P for mineralization include
several types of phosphate rock [colloidal, hard rock and reactive rock], fish,
manure and bone meal.
The use of herbicides/fungicides,
excessive soluble P fertilizers and excessive tillage kills off the mycorrhizal
activity in a soil. Correcting those factors can solve the P problems in all
but the weakest, lowest P content soils. If you have low phosphate soils, now
is the time to add a natural phosphate and stop depending on soluble
phosphates, which are expected to rise dramatically in price in the next few
years (see OTHER NEWS below).
WHAT ABOUT WEEDS? Since we now have
about every crop known to man grown “certified organically”, it is obvious that
cultural practices have been developed to handle weed problems. We have
tillage, rotations, cover crops, fallow, replaceable
or degradable coverings, sheep, ducks & geese, hand labor, cross-drilling
of grains and cultivation. Please refer to the July 2010 AcresUSA article, Non-Chemical
Weed Control for Commercial-Scale Crops by Kathy Birt for further
refinements.
The method that offers the most long
term solution to weed control seems to get lost in the shuffle – Mineral
Balancing. Ream’s methods, taught in the 70’s, are still valid today. Balance
and activate the soil such that the available P on a LaMotte Soil Test is about
double the K availability. Also manage
the Calcium:Magnesium Ratio
as close to 7:1 as possible. This method worked in the 70’s and it is still
working today. You can also use the old weed suppression trick of 2 gallons
each liquid calcium and molasses in 20 gallons of water applied after the last
disturbance of the soil (including the planter itself) to temporarily change
the P:K ratios and stop the grass and broadleaf
germination. The calcium suppresses the grasses and the molasses stimulates the
phosphorous releasing bacteria. Or, you can use our new liquid suspension minerals
containing Ca & P to do the same thing.
Remember, weeds only germinate, grow
and flourish according to the current soil conditions. If you don’t like the
current weed situation, change the conditions. Using a
herbicide just prolongs the pressure of that species as it does nothing to
modify mineralization, bio-activity or soil structure. It not only doesn’t
help, the negative affects of Glyphosate, the killing ingredient in Roundup
type herbicides, are so pervasive and disruptive, that a “sane” system of
regulation would have banned them long ago (see OTHER NEWS below).
Uncontrollable weeds are a not so gentle reminder that “YOU HAVEN’T GOT IT
RIGHT YET!
WHAT ABOUT DISEASES? The normal
state of all living systems is homeostasis or complete balance in every sense.
Diseases can only occur when there is an imbalance. The imbalance starts with a
disruption in the internal communication system of individual cells. The
disruption can be caused by nutritional, electromagnetic or toxicity factors. A
disease life form can then establish itself and inject further toxins into a
plant. The late Bruce Tainio proved that the balanced/homeostasis state is
reflected by the pH of the plant juices. The further the plant sap moves below
6.4, the greater the loss of homeostasis and the greater the attractiveness the
plant presents to the disease organism. Most plant diseases are fungal in
nature, with some obvious bacterial and viral examples.
Greg Willis states that fungal diseases
are only attracted to already dying tissue (see OTHER NEWS below). In other
words, loss of homeostasis has already occurred, dead cells/tissue are already
present. Greg has created an antifungal field spray (energy patterns imprinted
into water) using Steiner concepts that effectively stops fungus in its tracks.
Also, Cornell research shows that fungal diseases cannot produce a hyphae or
foot to penetrate a plant if the surface pH is 8.4 or above. Baking soda and
powdered milk are effective in raising the surface pH when you first see any
indication of a fungus in your area or on your plants. The long term solution
is adequate positive ions like calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium in the
plant to provide the natural alkalinity and adequate copper necessary for
fungal resistance.
WHAT ABOUT INSECTS: The exact same
concepts concerning diseases apply to insects except for the pH factor. A plant
with sap above 6.4 increases its attractiveness to insects as it rises
(Tainio). The other major factor is the local environment. As soon as you stop
spraying poisons and leave nearby wild plants, nature creates a natural system
of checks and balances involving predators and parasites to control the insect
affecting your crop (see OTHER NEWS below). Growers can also use pheromone
disruption (IPM) where nutritional balance is difficult to achieve, such as in
trying to convert conventionally farmed mature trees to organic. It may take
2-4 years to rebuild homeostasis.
Nutrition is still the answer to
resistance to all diseases and insect problems. And nutrition requires mineral
and carbon rich, bio-active soils. Diseases
and Insects are the symptom of a failing crop, not the cause of it!
GOOD HUMUS LEVELS ARE A MUST: Active
carbon (a component of humus) holds four times its weight in water. It is the primary food source for microbes and
it is one of the major casualties of conventional salt & rescue chemical
agriculture. Carbon helps create soil structure/tilth (see Dr. Jones OTHER NEWS
quotes below). Since the only way conventional ag has raised soil carbon levels
is through no-till approaches including toxic rescue chemistry, it’s time for
serious changes. The good news is that Sustainable Ag sequesters Carbon!
ENERGY IS THE FINAL ANSWER: It has
been an uphill battle getting growers around the world to recognize the value
of the Albrecht method of soil balancing (CEC tests). Even fewer growers are
able to grasp and use Dr. Ream’s technology (LaMotte tests). Fewer still
understand or embrace Rudolph Steiner’s concept commonly know as bio-dynamics
(see TESTIMONIALS below). As a biophysicist, I have to admit, that in my
opinion, the Steiner concepts most accurately define and match the true nature
of nature.
Each substance from a single atom to
a complex molecule has its own frequency pattern. All living organisms
(including man) can detect those patterns of subtle energy. Substances with
frequencies that don’t resonate with an organism cause interference in the
efficiency we mentioned earlier. Substances with resonating frequencies enhance
the life force of organisms receiving them.
All Steiner type (bio-dynamic) products and their actions are based on
the frequencies imbedded in the product. The products can influence soils,
plants, livestock, atmospheric conditions and more. When MI grower Dan
Underwood dried out his “too wet to be on” field in 2 days using Greg Willis
energy or frequency sprays (June 09 CSI newsletter) in his broadcasting tower
he “saw” energy in action.
That is why I recommend a 3 step
process to you for doing your part to change the conventional Ag paradigm before
it destroys our way of life. The three steps are Re-mineralization,
Bio-activation and Subtle Energy use and control. Re-mineralization – add the
minerals the CEC soil test show you deficient in. Bio-activation – add
manures, composts, fish, seaweeds, microbes, etc – that the LaMotte soil test
shows you need. Subtle Energy – foliar
feeding and
Broadcasting Towers (consider GW sprays).
KEEPING IN TOUCH:
• Morgan Compost Days, August 18 –
19, 2010,
Dr. Phil is presenting on Wed, the 18th
, at 1:30 pm.
• Harvest Fest, Sept 19, 2010,
Scotts, MI = Ron http://www.fairfoodmatters.org/harvestfest/
• Acres
• CSI 3-Day
Nontoxic Farming Seminar, January 11 – 13, 2011,
• Southern SWAG, January 20 – 22,
2011,
• MOSES, February 24 – 26, 2011,
LaCrosse, WI = Ron http://www.mosesorganic.org/conference.html
TESTIMONIALS:
• Mark Fulford, international
consultant and
• John Martin,
• Kent Friedrichsen,
• Kamon Reynolds,
• Wayne Underwood,
• Doug Kratz,
OTHER NEWS:
• Effects of Common Pesticides at Environmental Concentrations, is an
excellent presentation made at 2010 MOSES conference by Dr. Warren Porter,
professor at U of WI, Madison. His findings provide details on what Atrazine®
and other farm chemicals do to the body. His talk is very informative and cause
for real concern and caution! For an audio CD copy of his
presentation call: 952-432-3079.
• Julian Cribb, Adjunct Profession
in Science Communication at the
• Christine Jones, Ph.D. – Soil carbon – can it save agricultures
bacon? http://amazingcarbon.com/
P3 “Mycorrhizal fungi, which
are totally dependent on dissolved organic carbon from green plants, trade
carbon with colonies of bacteria located at their hyphal tips in exchange for
macro-nutrients such as phosphorus, organic nitrogen, calcium and such trace
elements as zinc, boron, copper and plant growth stimulating substances
(Killham 1994, Leake et al. 2004)…”
“Mycorrhizal fungi and associative
bacteria are very strongly inhibited by excessive soil disturbance and the high
levels of water-soluble phosphorus and nitrogen commonly used in modern
agriculture (Killham 1994, Leake et al.
2004). Where soils have been subjected to cultivation and/or the application of
MAP, DAP, superphosphate, urea or anhydrous ammonia, the suppressed mycorrhizal
colonization of plant roots significantly reduces carbon flow. The structural
degradation of agricultural soils, accompanied by mineral depletion in food,
has largely been the result of the inhibition of this natural carbon pathway.”
“When carbon supply is
limited by the loss of the primary pathway for sequestration, the physical,
chemical and biological functions normally performed by healthy soil are
markedly reduced.”
P3 “The analyses (soil
samples from farmed paddocks of either high or low productivity) revealed that
the most important determinant of soil productivity was the level of soil
carbon (measured as organic matter in Strzelecki’s day).”
P4 “Strzelecki’s data
indicate that organic matter levels in the early settlement period were around
five to ten times higher than in many soils today.)”
P5 “This contradicts the
widely promoted belief that nitrogenous fertilizer needs to be added in order
for stable soil carbon to form. Indeed, the opposite is true (Khan it al. 2007, Larson 2007), Mulvaney et al. 2009)” (Plus, as Bruce Tainio
taught, properly grown crops should realize a net increase in organic matter
when considering both above and below ground mass).
“If plants are mycorrhizal,
they don’t require nitrogen in a mineralized form, that is, in the form of
nitrate or ammonium. In order to transport mineralized nitrogen, mycorrhizal
fungi have to convert it to glutamate, which represents an energy cost. For
this reason nitrogen is preferentially transported in an organic form,
generally as amino acids such as glycine and glutamine (Leake et al. 2004).”
P6 “The nutritional status
of soils, plants, animals and people has fallen dramatically in the last 50
years, due to losses in soil carbon, the key driver for soil nutrient cycles…
…food produced from depleted soils does not contain the essential trace
minerals required for the effective functioning of our immune systems.”
“At the beginning of this
paper it was noted that the level of agricultural real debt in
See: http://amazingcarbon.com/PDF/JONES-SoilCarbon&Agriculture%2818May10%29.pdf
Tomato Fungus:
• Greg Willis comments on
tomato fungus: Blight is a fungus. Fungi
show up when there is death or dying in a plant. SSFI (Super Strength Fungus
Interruptus spray) restores a measure of life in a plant tricking it into
thinking that there is no role for fungi.
There are as many different kinds of fungi as there are plants and
situations in which fungi become active.
That's why there are so many different kinds of fungi that
"attack" tomatoes.
But if this has continues
for very long, the problem is more fundamental and SSFI will become no more than
a band-aid temporarily solving a problem.
Tomatoes require compost
made of composted plants, non-diseased plants to be sure, but a tomato plant compost is best. (Reams always said plants do
best when they utilize nutrients of their
own frequency). Tomatoes also need calcium and sulfur. (Our solution would be PKS & Cal.)
In the interim, a application of the Ultra 12 Step spray and SSFI should
help. I can't say it will be the cure
since blight is indicative of far deeper problems that must be addressed in the
soil and the relationship between the vine and the sun and warmth.
• Dr. Richard Olree writes,
“Tell your milk producers to learn about the A1 genetic milk problem and to get
their cows tests. It’s about $25 to test”. Go to his site for more: http://www.emineral.info/
• For you who signed Dan
Kittredge's Nutrient-Dense Manifesto
at the 2009Acres
THANKS for your trust and business. Good growing and
good crops to you this year,
Dr. Phil, Louisa, Sue and Ron