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The magazine of Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality

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For more product information, visit www.petergillham.com.

Organic Life Vitamins is available through Peter Gillham’s

Natural Vitality: 800.446.7462.
A new vision of health In this issue
begins in the soil

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e named this magazine Organic Connections because PStHBOtJD |ôr ganʹik|
of our belief that life is interconnected. We don’t live denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit
in isolation from our neighbors, our fellow humans
together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole: the organic unity of
across the planet or from the environment. The
the integral work of art t
DIBSBDUFSJ[FE
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principle of cause and effect applies in each of these areas and is
ment: companies expand as much by acquisition as by organic growth.
just beginning to be recognized on a global basis.
In this issue, Dr. Arden Andersen explains that “the micro-
organisms in the soil determine how a crop is going to grow, which
then determines how we’re going to grow with the nutrition from 4

Nutrition Detective

that crop. At the same time, how we farm and manage the plant has Noted author and nutritionist
to do with what goes on with the rain forest and what goes on with Nan Kathryn Fuchs, PhD,
the oceans. It’s all connected.” discusses the relationship
The implications of what Dr. Andersen discusses are enormous. between the minerals calcium
Environmental awareness and positive action needs to go far
and magnesium and why their
beyond recycling and conservation. Life on this planet depends
upon nutrition. It’s why we eat. Many of us understand that balance is so critical to our
petrochemical fertilizers and toxic chemical sprays are not good
for the environment or for our bodies. As a result, organic produce
health.
4
is becoming increasingly popular (though the vast majority of food 7

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is still produced “conventionally”). But did you know that a large
Putting a new healthy spin on
quantity of the agricultural nitrogen-based chemical compounds
applied to fields become gases that escape into the atmosphere? convenience food, Organic To Go
These are greenhouse gases with far greater potency than simple is America’s first certified-organic
carbon dioxide. Elevated levels of these gases have been directly fast-food restaurant.
linked to stratospheric ozone depletion and other serious environ-
mental problems. Agricultural fertilizer adds to global air pollution 9 Dr. Arden Andersen
and climate change.
But that’s the bad news. The good news is that, as Dr. Andersen Both a medical doctor and a world 7
says, “We have the technology.” Food can be grown without leader in sustainable agriculture,
chemical fertilizers and with far greater nutrient content (nutrient Dr. Arden Andersen believes that
density). A corn crop, for example, fertilized with gravel dust (rocks health begins with healthy soil and
contain minerals that can “remineralize” the soil), when compared is helping to lead an agricultural
with the same type of corn grown nearby using chemicals, yielded
revolution that will improve our
28 percent more protein, 47 percent more calcium, 57 percent
more phosphorus, 60 percent more magnesium and 90 percent bodily health and the health of
more potassium. Nutrient-dense foods are healthier, more vibrant, the environment by restoring real
have exceptional flavor and last longer. (For more on this, check
out www.remineralize.org.) That’s something positive we can all
nutritional content to our food. 9
connect with.

@ZcL]^ibVc
publisher

A portion of the profits from the sale of

Organic Connections is published by Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality Natural Calm ® and Organic Life Vitamins™ goes to our
2530 N. Ontario Street, Burbank, CA 91504-2512 Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative
/BUJPOBM
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addressing global warming, which helps fund
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JOGP!QFUFSHJMMIBNDPN Conservation International (www.conservation.org) and
Statements made in this magazine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products mentioned are Remineralize the Earth (www.remineralize.org).
not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. © 2008 Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality. All rights reserved.



P S H B O J D
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Nan Kathryn Fuchs, PhD

N
The Nutrition Detective Speaks
by Bruce Boyers

calcium deficiency was being touted as the
“big concern” by doctors and nutritionists
alike with no mention of magnesium, Dr.
Fuchs, along with only a very few other
voices in the storm, flew right into the teeth
of that campaign.
“The first time anything that I wrote
appeared in print was with my first book,
The Nutrition Detective, which came out in
1985,” Dr. Fuchs told Organic Connections.
“I struggled with the decision to write about
the calcium controversy because it was
Nan Kathryn Fuchs, PhD, is a noted author such a big subject and it was so opposed
and veteran nutritionist. Her books include to what everybody was saying. And here I
The Nutrition Detective, Overcoming the was, this little thirty-something nutritionist
Legacy of Overeating, User’s Guide to Cal- in Southern California, saying all of these
cium & Magnesium, and The Health Detec- doctors and scientists were wrong. But Dr.
tive’s 456 Most Powerful Healing Secrets. She Guy Abraham had good science to back up
is also the author of the widely read monthly everything he said, and that of course was
Women’s Health Letter. what I relied on. Turned out he was right.”
Dr. Fuchs had been studying with re-
From the time she could talk, Nan Kathryn search gynecologist and endocrinologist
Fuchs was always asking, “Why?” Even Guy Abraham, MD, and it was he who first
as a child, she would dig and persist until imparted to her this then revolutionary
she found answers that made sense. This set of facts. “Dr. Abraham was the person
around Los Angeles. “I delivered incense
from China and little packets of herb teas
to various bookstores,” she recalled. In
1972 she founded Environmental Massage,
a holistic approach to stress management;
then in 1976 she co-founded one of the
first holistic centers in the country: Baraka
Holistic Center in Santa Monica, California.
In the following years she obtained a degree
in nutrition and settled down as a practicing
nutritionist for the next two decades.
However, Dr. Fuchs has always consid-
ered herself to be first a writer and second a
nutritionist, and at this point in her life writ-
ing has firmly taken over. She now imparts
useful information and advice through her
books and her monthly Women’s Health
Letter. While the newsletter itself is by paid
subscription, anyone can sign up on the
website (www.womenshealthletter.com) and
receive free weekly health alerts, which she
describes as “my take on something current
in the news.” Recent examples include the
dangers of plastic water bottles and the way
to read organic food labels.

unrelenting curiosity followed her into life;
when colleagues and others were simply
accepting information because it “came from
authority” or some such, Dr. Fuchs did not.
Again, she would doggedly ask questions
until she received satisfactory answers. This
distinctive style is why she is now known as
“The Nutrition Detective”—and why she was
one of the very first to release the real facts
about the calcium-magnesium balance.
Today, the true information on the
crucial relationship between calcium and
magnesium is finally starting to be circulated
and noticed. The fact of the matter is that
the body cannot absorb calcium without
a proper balance of magnesium, and an
overabundance of calcium in the body can
lead to numerous health issues. But Dr.
Nan Kathryn Fuchs happened upon this
information back in the 1980s and took
what at the time was a brave stand; when
[ ]
I find it particularly disturbing to hear doctors and so-called
health writers saying that we need 1,500 milligrams of
calcium daily, and then allowing the consumer to believe
that this means they should take 1,500 milligrams of
supplemental calcium without regard to their diet.
who defined the different subsets of PMS In the books, newsletters and scientific
and the nutrient deficiencies that were papers she has authored and co-authored
responsible for them,” she said. “And two of throughout the years, she has never
these—PMS ending in depression and PMS stopped fighting against the misinformation
with mood swings and anxiety—were both about calcium—and for very good reason.
concerned with lower levels of magnesium Although the truth is now being circulated,
as compared with calcium.” calcium is still broadly promoted in igno-
Nan Kathryn Fuchs had already lived a rance of magnesium; so there continues to
life very much on her own terms. Just a short be an uphill battle.
time earlier, from the late sixties to early “In balancing out calcium and magne-
seventies, she had had a business called The sium, it comes down to what you’ve done
Herb Lady, in which she drove a Volkswagen in the past to know what you need to do in
Bus painted with leaves and big purple letters the future,” Dr. Fuchs explained. “But the
P S H B O J D
D P O O F D U J P O T



majority of Americans eat a lot of dairy and
don’t eat a lot of foods high in magnesium,
like whole grains, nuts and seeds, and dark
green leafy vegetables. I find it particularly
disturbing to hear doctors and so-called
health writers saying that we need 1,500
milligrams of calcium daily, and then al-
lowing the consumer to believe that this
means they should take 1,500 milligrams
of supplemental calcium without regard to
their diet. And that’s what’s happening—
people have been taking huge amounts of
calcium and getting themselves into trouble
ever since calcium began being promoted.”
[ ]
It’s hard not to get enough calcium even if you’re a vegan
and eating a healthy diet. If you’re not eating a healthy
diet, it’s very easy to get too much calcium and not
enough magnesium.
Muscle cramping, fibromyalgia (nonspe-
cific muscle pain), heart palpitations and
heart disease as well as premenstrual symp-
toms (PMS) can all result from excessive
calcium, according to Dr. Fuchs. And what
happens to calcium that can’t be absorbed?
“Unabsorbed calcium gets into the arteries
and becomes atherosclerosis [a form of ar-
teriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)] or
into the joints and becomes arthritis.”
An overbalance of calcium can also
lead to osteoporosis, as a high intake of
calcium causes bones to be brittle, whereas
magnesium forms bones that are strong
and flexible. “Let’s use chalk and ivory to
illustrate this bone-building phenomenon,”
said Dr. Fuchs. “Chalk is pure calcium car-
bonate, one of the forms of calcium added
to many osteoporosis supplements. Ivory,
on the other hand, contains calcium with
magnesium. If you took a three-inch-long
thin piece of chalk and dropped it, it would
break. The same size piece of ivory would
bounce. Do you want your bones to be
more like chalk or ivory?”
In today’s dietary world, it is not at all
difficult to overbalance calcium. Dr. Fuchs
pointed out that there are 300 milligrams of
calcium in just a small container of yogurt.
There is also a good quantity of calcium in
cheese, which many people snack on. “It’s
hard not to get enough calcium even if
you’re a vegan and eating a healthy diet.
If you’re not eating a healthy diet, it’s very
easy to get too much calcium and not
enough magnesium.”



P S H B O J D
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Of course, once a person understands this
information they will want to strike a proper
balance between these two minerals. Dr.
Fuchs explained that when the equilibrium
has been thrown off over time by the intake
of high amounts of calcium through the diet
and additionally through supplements, a
person needs to “go overboard” in the other
direction and take a lot more magnesium.
Once the balance has been achieved, they
can settle out.
The simplest way to find the right level
of magnesium is the “bowel test” method
described in Dr. Fuchs’ book User’s Guide to
Calcium & Magnesium. A person can simply
add supplemental magnesium to their diet, up
to 1,000 milligrams per day (best broken down
into two or three smaller doses during the day),
till they have comfortably loose stools.
Regarding the correct level of calcium, in
the same book Dr. Fuchs discusses the fact
that calcium absorption is even more impor-
tant than the amount of calcium taken. For
this reason, a person should first evaluate his
or her diet and discover what kind of calcium
and how much calcium he or she is already
ingesting, and then become somewhat edu-
cated on absorbable forms of calcium so that
it does enter the body correctly. Dr. Fuchs
recommends that calcium intake be limited
to no more than 500 milligrams daily, which,
she points out, is the amount found in many
healthy meals.
Magnesium Deficiency
As with others in her field, Dr. Fuchs’ research
and treating of patients over the years has
also led her to discover much information
about the body’s need for magnesium and the
proliferation of magnesium deficiencies. “I
found when I was practicing that there were
a lot of women—and men too, but mostly
women—who were constipated,” she told OC.
“And they were under stress, and stress causes
the body to utilize more magnesium and be-
come magnesium deficient. I don’t know very
many women who are not stressed. Men may
be also, but certainly women are. So I would
just start them off with more magnesium
for their constipation and their constipation
would go away. But so did other things—so
did arrhythmias, so did headaches—and they
were able to get rid of the pain from exercis-
ing or overexercising more quickly. So if you
can take one nutrient and have many, many
different reactions clear up, then you know
you’re onto something important.”
Dr. Fuchs further explains in User’s
Guide to Calcium & Magnesium that all
muscles contain, and need more magne-
sium than, calcium. Calcium causes muscles
to contract while magnesium helps them to
relax, and the heart is a muscle that relies
on this combination of relaxing and con-
tracting. Magnesium is vitally important
in relieving all muscle-related conditions,
including arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat),
headaches, muscle cramps, muscle pains
and restless leg syndrome.
Magnesium is necessary for many bodily
functions. “On its own, magnesium helps
‘turn on’ hundreds of enzymes,” Dr. Fuchs
said. “These enzymes enable the carbohy-
drates (starches and sugars) and fats in your
diet to be used as energy. Magnesium also
W
helps regulate nerve cell function, allowing
your nervous system to relax.” Magnesium
plays a key role in mood and sleep, and
even provides a boost against depression
and fatigue.
Interestingly, a major symptom of mag-
nesium deficiency, one which many women
experience especially just prior to the men-
strual cycle, is chocolate cravings. “Chocolate
is higher in magnesium than any other food
on the planet,” Dr. Fuchs explained. “Chap-
ter 20 of my book Overcoming the Legacy of
Overeating is about overcoming chocolate
cravings and the magnesium solution. I can’t
tell you how much that has helped people,
because calcium overload and low magne-
sium frequently results in craving chocolate,
which is high in magnesium.”
Dr. Nan Kathryn Fuchs, the Nutrition
Detective, continues daily to dig for the facts
about calcium, magnesium and endless
other subjects affecting our nutrition and
lifestyle. We thank her for sharing with us
some of her hard-won findings.
To find out more about Dr. Nan Kathryn
Fuchs, her books, her newsletter and her
free weekly health alerts, please visit
www.womenshealthletter.com.
America’s First Organically Certified Fast-Food Restaurant
W
While the US may be known for its supersized burgers,
fries and sugary shakes, and while a large percentage of
the population is suffering the dietary consequences of
frequent patronage, there is a bright star on the horizon.
Thanks to 30-year veteran entrepreneur Jason Brown
of Seattle, the face of fast fare is changing radically.
“Organic food is a passion. I lived in Boulder, Colorado,
in the seventies and really enjoyed the pioneering days of organic and natural
food,” Brown told Organic Connections. “A few years back I was gainfully unem-
ployed, as I had sold my last company, and I had these great people that I wanted
to continue to work with that were the founding team of the prior company. So we
spent a great deal of time thinking and talking, and after a few months we came
up with the whole concept of Organic To Go.”
And what a concept! Based in Seattle, Organic To Go is the nation’s first fast-
casual café chain to be USDA certified as an organic retailer, with operations in
Seattle, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. Organic To Go’s food is
now available in over 170 locations, including 33 cafés, more than 120 wholesale
outlets, 14 universities, and 11 kiosks at Los Angeles International Airport with
one also at San Diego International Airport. All Organic To Go fare is made with
organic ingredients whenever possible, with emphasis on locally grown sources,
and is always natural and free of harmful chemicals.
The company has expanded quickly. It was only back in April 2004 that Brown,
compelled by two fast-growing trends—organic and natural products and take-
out food service—gathered a small group of his colleagues for brainstorming.
By January 2005 the company’s first two locations had opened in Washington,
and in February 2007 the company went public. By November 2007, they had
reached close to their present number of locations and were expanding at 65
percent per year.
A key part of the Organic To Go business model is to give on-the-go business-
people and professionals an alternative to the nutritionally devoid food normally
available. “Simply put, we’re a business company,” Brown said. “We feed people
where they work, go for higher education at universities, as well as in airports.
People are excited to have an alternative where they can eat food that is grown
without the use of pesticides, and without antibiotics and hormones. But at the
end of the day, people eat Organic To Go food because it’s delicious.”
P S H B O J D
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 Organic To Go was created with a three-
pronged strategy: to open cafés inside
large buildings or corporate headquarters,
to have “grab & go” locations (more like
stores) in other areas such as airports and
universities, and to also offer full-service
corporate catering.
The company feels that if consumers—
especially educated people—are given a
choice, they will care about organic and
natural ingredients. At this time, Organic To
Jason R. Brown—CEO Go is the only certified-organic fast-casual
café chain in the US and the only alternative
to conventional fast food.
Of course, the centerpiece of the Organic
To Go offering is their food. The sandwich
menu includes such temptations as line-
caught albacore tuna salad, curried chicken
salad, caprese tomato mozzarella, grilled
garden vegetables, and Mom’s meatloaf.
The company is able to maintain a com-
fortable price point through a strategy they
call “hub and spoke.” What this means is
that food at each location is prepared in a
central commissary both for the café and for
catering. Not only is this cost effective but it
maintains a level of quality throughout their
various offerings.
Brown was a natural to lead the com-
pany to such success. Prior to founding
Organic To Go, he founded and served as
CEO of Custom Nutrition Services, a cus-
tom supplement program that provided
consumers with personalized vitamin
solutions. Brown also developed award-
winning packaging concepts for the first
antibiotic- and hormone-free salmon farms
in New Zealand and created a distribution
company for the salmon and other inno-
vative products.

Chef Greg Atkinson



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Their pizzas are made with organic flour,
pizza sauce and mozzarella, with toppings
such as fresh organic veggies or organic
pepperoni. From their hot entrées one
can choose barbeque beef, organic pot
roast, tri-tip steak, grilled wild salmon,
or tofu garden veggie stir-fry, among many
others. There are also wraps, soups, a salad
bar, pastries, coffees, and a healthy list of
breakfast items.
Obviously a key to Organic To Go’s suc-
cess is the freshness of ingredients. So how
do they maintain that freshness? The answer
lies in their “just-in-time” inventory system.
Items such as lettuce, vegetables and meats
arrive just before preparation and when
delivered are still very fresh—in fact, sig-
nificantly fresher than the same ingredients
normally available in grocery stores.
The company’s mission doesn’t stop at
their ingredients, however. They also use
sustainable practices in their kitchens and
cafés, utilizing items ranging from bio-
degradable to-go cartons to a new fleet of
hybrid delivery cars.
In addition to Jason Brown, the com-
pany’s board of directors includes organic
luminaries Peter Meehan, co-founder of
Newman’s Own Organics, and Hass Hassan,
founder of several natural market chains
and currently on the board of directors of
Whole Foods Market.
The menu is created by world-renowned
chef and author Greg Atkinson, a leader for
over 25 years in sustainable and organic food
and its preparation. Atkinson is a charter
member of the Seattle Chefs Collaborative
as well as being a Certified Culinary Profes-
sional with the International Association of
Culinary Professionals.
The company’s future is poised for ex-
pansion into business areas throughout
the country, including the as yet untapped
East Coast.
“It feels good to get other people to try and
consume really high quality food,” Brown
said, “and I think it’s a powerful message,
a powerful opportunity, to be able to build
a company that benefits society and also
performs financially for its shareholders.”
Arden Andersen, PhD, DO
The Root of Good Nutrition

One doesn’t find too many individuals like Dr. Arden Andersen. Not only
is he an accomplished physician but he is also a world leader in the field
of sustainable agriculture. He knows better than anyone that many of the
health issues he is routinely seeing in his practice begin way down in the
soil in which our food is grown. And in both cases, he is extremely well
versed in what to do.

P S H B O J D
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N
Finally friends were asking me, ‘Why don’t farmers that grow the food, including much
you go to medical school?’ So I finally did, of the ‘organically certified’ food.”
and I think I understood that what I was Why has there been such a decline? Dr.
going to do when I got out was not conven- Andersen provides the answer: “When we
tional medicine—it was going to be a corre- look back, we see that agriculture has really
lation between what’s going on at the farm dropped the ball relative to nutrition in the
and what happens with people as far as my soil and then obviously getting that nutrition
medical practice is concerned.” into the plant, which is into the food that we
eat. Ultimately, in order to change human
Why Isn’t Our Food Nutritious? health, we have to go back and change the
soil, because that’s where it comes from. And
Dr. Andersen points out that there are that’s really where preventative medicine
thousands of articles correlating nutrition— begins—right in the soil.”
meaning diet—with human health. In fact What exactly is wrong with the soil?
one website, www.vitasearch.com, has a It began as far back as the 1930s, when
weekly listing of current scientific abstracts an increasing number of farmers started
on and around this very subject. Plentiful using purified fertilizers—straight nitrogen,
literature exists supporting the fact that straight phosphorus and straight potash,
Not surprisingly, Dr. Andersen maintains many of humankind’s major maladies, such known today as the “NPK model.” Other
the viewpoint that all life is connected and as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and others, nutrients were neglected—nutrients essential
that something done to one aspect of life are related to nutrition. to plant as well as human health—as they
can affect all others. “Life forms are all in- But anyone following this information has didn’t appear to be needed in order to grow
terdependent,” he told Organic Connections. to take a further step back, for where does bountiful crops. Since the original broader
“The microorganisms in the soil determine that nutrition come from? Nutritionists will number of nutrients was never replenished,
how a crop is going to grow, which then de- reply that it comes from a balanced diet— over time they disappeared, and today they
termines how we’re going to grow with the but that “balanced diet” is composed of food. are long gone.

[ ]
nutrition from that crop. At the same time,
how we farm and manage the plant has to
do with what goes on with the rain forest
and what goes on with the oceans. It’s all
It has not been science at all; it’s all about business.
connected.”
One might ask, how did a medical doctor
happen to become an agricultural expert?
The answer explains how Dr. Andersen
arrived where he is today. According to Dr. Andersen’s research, the But as it turns out, the solutions imple-
“Actually it’s the other way around,” Dr. nutrient content of foods today compared mented were not only for the sake of farmer
Andersen said. “I grew up on a dairy farm to half a century ago ranges from 15 to 75 convenience. Dr. Andersen shed more light
in Michigan, with a father and grandfather percent less. Unfortunately, this decline in- on this. “I think farming methods devolved
who were quite alternatively open-minded cludes foods labeled organic. “The fact of the mainly because of the drive by industry,
relative to raising crops and taking care matter is,” he said, “that the food itself today particularly from World War II on. During
of cattle and those kinds of things. Over is significantly deficient in nutrient density World War I, we started developing nitrates
time we started having more and more due to the poor nutritional practices of the for bomb making, for explosives, but in
problems on the farm with resistive weeds, World War II that production really went
resistive insects—things like that—and we into high gear. When the war was over, con-
would always deal with them from an cerned interests wondered how this pro-
alternative or natural perspective.” It follows duction could continue—and they decided
that Dr. Andersen obtained his first degree agriculture would be a great market.”
in agricultural science, from the University The reason for this was that they
of Arizona, and embarked on a career knew nitrates promoted very fast crop
of consulting in alternative agriculture, growth. “Using a chemical like nitrogen in
studying and advising farmers on how crop agriculture, you get crop growth by volume,”
and animal health correlates to soil health. explained Dr. Andersen. “The problem is
But it didn’t stop there. “I consulted for that the crops are not fit to eat. There’s no
about ten years,” continued Dr. Andersen. nutrition there to speak of, and that’s part
“During that time I always recognized the of the reason we have degraded our food.”
connection between soil health, the crops However, there was a further business
that are raised on that soil, and human motivation for pushing nitrates on farmers.
health, because we always knew that animal “Nitrates are very conducive to pathogens,
health was very correlated to soil health. to harmful organisms,” Dr. Andersen



P S H B O J D
D P O O F D U J P O T
Ultimately, in order to change human health, we have
to go back and change the soil, because that’s where
it comes from. And that’s really where preventative
medicine begins—right in the soil.

P S H B O J D
D P O O F D U J P O T



 The fact of the matter is
that the food itself today
is significantly deficient in
nutrient density due to the
poor nutritional practices
of the farmers that
grow the food, including
much of the “organically
certified” food.




P S H B O J D
D P O O F D U J P O T
continued. “So, as well, the same companies
that have promoted the use of nitrogen are
also manufacturing the pesticides to kill
the organisms that are now going to be
promoted by that fertilizer. So it’s a great
business plan. And that’s exactly what it has
been. It has not been science at all; it’s all
about business.”
Whatever the motivations, the net effect
is soil that is non-nutritious, resulting in
nutrient-devoid crops that are disease rid-
den and require heavier and heavier doses
of pesticides and herbicides. Interestingly, it
all comes down to the environment created
within the soil—and therein lies the key to
salvation of crops and farming everywhere.
“The thing that we have to understand is
that every organism is dependent upon its
environment,” Dr. Andersen told OC. “As we
change the environment, we change which
organisms will survive or perish. As we
change the nutrition in the soil and the dy-
namics of what’s going on in the soil, we can process, and it must be done farm by farm negative carbon load and actually release
set up the appropriate environment for the to be truly successful. Dr. Andersen pointed significant CO2 into the atmosphere as a
beneficial microorganisms to survive, not out that it is a three- to five-year program as result. These and other necessary nutrients
the disease organisms. They do not like the a rule, and it begins as he would begin with are added through humic acids, folic acid,
same environment, particularly as it deals a patient in his medical practice. “We go molasses or sugar, fish, seaweed, and many
with oxygen; it’s a question of an anaerobic back to some basic things of learning how others as needed. “We’re dealing with, re-
[oxygen-deprived] environment versus an to do a history and physical exam, because ally, a living digestive system, and we have
aerobic [oxygen-rich] environment. The 90 percent of everything that really is going to treat it like a living digestive system,” Dr.
beneficial organisms are dominantly aero- to go on has to do with history and physi- Andersen said.
bic organisms. Our pathogens, or harmful cal exam. We have to learn to read the defi-
organisms, are dominantly anaerobic-loving. ciencies in that soil. If we understand really The Result
The environments that conventional agricul- how to read them—we go out and walk the
ture has set up are predominantly anaerobic field, doing various precision instrument As one might expect, from nutrient-rich soil
environments, so they’re most conducive to readings—all of those things tell us what’s come crops that are many times more nutri-
disease organisms.” actually going on with that plant, with that tious. What may surprise farmers, though,
soil, and so on. When we accumulate those is the fact that yield is also significantly
Solving the Soil Crisis readings, they tell us what needs to be done affected. “We’re seeing yields on these crops
nutrientwise in order to change that envi- that are far above the norm on a consistent
So what can be done? It is this question that ronment.” basis, that conventional farmers only wish
Dr. Andersen strives to answer in detail How are beneficial changes introduced, for,” Dr. Andersen reported. “This is even
through his many agricultural classes the once the “history and physical exam” have true in drought years, flood years, cold years

[ ]
and hot years.”
We’re seeing yields on these crops that are far above the And because they’re not being promoted
by soils depleted of nutrients, pests are
norm on a consistent basis, that conventional farmers only greatly reduced without the use of chemical
wish for. This is even true in drought years, flood years, pesticides and herbicides. “We don’t have
cold years and hot years. the disease, weed and insect problems that
the conventional guys are just pulling their
hair out over,” stated Dr. Andersen.
world over. As one might guess, it begins been done? To start with, calcium is added, In ever growing numbers, farmers are
with soil management. “We need to change since it is one of the most deficient nutri- noticing that problems with conventional
that soil to become more aerobic so it is not ents in soil. As well, all trace minerals need farming are only getting worse—and many
conducive to disease organisms but is con- to go in—not just the 15 or 16 minerals of these agriculturists are arriving at Dr.
ducive to beneficial organisms,” he said. “So that conventional agriculture states are re- Andersen’s classes. “The better farmers are
it’s all about management.” quired, but the full 60 to 80 nutrients. Car- recognizing that the herbicides are not
Dr. Andersen’s method—called Biologi- bohydrates must be added back in to get working well and we’re getting more and
cal Farm Management—is not an overnight a positive carbon load; crops today have a more resistant strains,” he said. “If you look
P S H B O J D
D P O O F D U J P O T



at Roundup [a best-selling herbicide], for example, the quantity of active ingredients that
farmers are having to use today as compared to 20 years ago is something like three
times the amount on a per-acre basis and we’re still getting all kinds of resistant weeds.
So those farmers are looking at that and they’re saying, ‘Hey, this is not going to work
long term. We have to have an alternative; we have to have other answers.”
The bottom line? “Mr. and Mrs. Consumer, we have the technology to grow more
nutritious, better tasting, more bountiful food crops without toxic poisons polluting
our foods and environment, at a better profit per acre, than do conventional agriculture
systems,” Dr. Andersen concluded. “It is being done and is expanding as farmers learn of
the technology and consumers demand the better food and fiber products.”

Mr. and Mrs. Consumer, we have the technology

[
to grow more nutritious, better tasting, more
bountiful food crops without toxic poisons polluting
our foods and environment, at a better profit per
acre, than do conventional agriculture systems. It
is being done and is expanding as farmers learn of
the technology and consumers demand the better
food and fiber products.




P S H B O J D
D P O O F D U J P O T
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Natural Calm is available through major distributors or from
Peter Gillham’s Natural Vitality: 800.446.7462.

For more product information, visit www.petergillham.com.