The same is true for every other essential mineral nutrient, from Zinc the intelligence mineral to Selenium needed for proper immune function. If they have been mined out of the soil, or were never in the soil to begin with, the crops grown cannot contain them and will fail in the primary task of providing complete nutrition.

The old saying about the weather is “Everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it”. For over sixty years we have heard about our agricultural soils being mineral depleted. Why is it that so few have seen the obvious solution, add back the missing minerals?

There is no worldwide shortage of any of them, they simply need to be moved around. Measure the mineral levels in the soil and supply the ones that are deficient. That simple step, along with creating a living soil, can turn any plot of worn-out dirt into a nutritional garden of Eden.

Lots of information on how (and why) to do this is available free at http://www.soilminerals.com.

I got back into farming but could only afford to rent land and soon discovered that improving someone’s farm was a losing proposition. So yes the cost of entry is a major problem.

However if you look at the report you will find that most new farmers are women that have left corporate work to create a new lifestyle for themselves and their families. Most are small farms, the USDA definition of small is anyone grossing less that $250,000.00 annually.

As for the claim that most people working on factory farms are “hard working American’s”; they maybe in the front office but poor Latin’s make up the work force doing the dirty work. The abuse of the farm animals and poorly paid workers remains a major problem for corporate Ag.

: D

http://www.growafarmer.org

By the way, the change to $1,000 minimum income was not all that recent – its been that way since before I was in high school, so at least 15 years.

I feel like you’re article tries to suggest that large scale modern farming is the SOLE reason that small farmers have diminished. You are welcome to correct me if I am wrong about that.
However, were you ever a farm kid growing up? Did you ever feel that passion in your gut and honest pride for the work you busted your butt doing every day? Only to go to school, and have other kids make fun of you because you’re clothes smelled a bit funny? Or because YOU were a farmer and that was one of the lowliest jobs that one could imagine?

For many, the social influence was too much – and in all honesty is likely responsible for the huge decline of students going on to seek degrees in agriculture at our many land grant universities.

Furthermore – many times those big feedlots you are scoffing at – are run by hard working Americans that by in large take very good care of the animals. They use scientifically proven diets to make sure the animal has the right combination of nutrients for healthy development. They consider themselves to be small farmers – and yes, because they have a contract to sell to Cargill – they may appear corporate, but deep down they are just the small farmer that so many of us want to be.

Let us not forget that Americans have the CHEAPEST, MOST RELIABLE, SAFEST (despite any ecoli outbreaks), food supply in the WORLD. Nobody does it better than we do.