Depleted Soils Mineralogy Emergency Food Supply
Since the beginning of the use of fertilizers in 40s, the composition of the soil has changed. Formerly one fertilized the soil with manure from animals, people, ... basically with everything that is compostable. The cycle of nutrients was (almost) completely closed, the losses were minimal.
Through the use of fertilizers which are based on the three main nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (NPK) - gradually all kinds of minerals from the soil disappeared. This is not a real problem for the production of food. The three main elements make the crops grow well. Because revenues strongly increased there was no further thought, but in recent years a growing awareness that food is more - and should be - than just stuffing.
Mineral deficiency
Comparisons of mineral content of fruit and vegetables from the '60s and now it appears that the levels of minerals have fallen dramatically. As contained hundred grams of spinach in 1958 still 158 milligrams of iron. In 1967, the iron content was dropped to 27 milligrams and spinach in 1973 contained only 2.2 milligrams of iron ( More info ).
The poor state of the current agricultural land still provides a high production but the quality of the food is horrendous. Because the minerals in the soil are exhausted and can not be completed in the current system, our current diet consists of carbohydrates and contains little protein. However, these proteins are vital because they play important roles in our body .
Proteins are regulators of many body processes, deficiencies of these proteins allows for fail current processes and is a partial cause for the present civilization diseases such as cancer, obesity and Alzheimer's disease.