"Soil minerals" refers to the natural substances found in soil that are important for plant growth. These minerals provide essential nutrients such as potassium, phosphorus, and calcium, which plants need to survive and thrive.
Full definition
Due to negative nutrient balances as shown in Table 2, the question arises whether organic agriculture methods cause gradual loss
of soil minerals.
It's no secret that in recent
decades soil minerals have become depleted, and because of this, our food quality has declined.
This is an «extra» or short - term fix, not a replacement for a
good soil mineral management program.
The researchers also found what McGee calls «astounding» acidity — about pH 4 — from carbonic acid, which forms when CO2 dissolves in water and reacts
with soil minerals.
It's too much for the microbes or the plant to take up, and so most of it just gets locked up
by soil minerals forever.»
NPK fertilizer is highly acidic — it disrupts the pH (acid / alkaline) balance of the soil and destroys microorganisms that
change soil minerals into a form usable by plants.
The harsh chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides used in conventional farming can destroy a large part of the microbial activity in the soils (bacteria and fungi) that help to
make soil minerals more available to the plants roots.
Organic practitioners regard the farm as a macroorganism in which all the parts —
the soil minerals, organic matter, microorganisms, insects, plants, animals, and humans — interact to create a coherent and stable whole.
Hypothyroidism or low thyroid hormone is a common condition in North America, particularly Canada and the upper U.S. states where levels of sunlight are low for much of the year, and
soil mineral depletion is common.
Soils minerals were pretty important.
From consumption of food products that are nutritionally deficient to even organic produce than is deficient in vital minerals due to
soil mineral depletion, the fact is that this generation of Westerners is the most micronutrient deficient of all time (assuming adequate food availability).