num_pages: 336
description: It is bold it is courageous and it challenges many of our preconceptions about food about soils about farming and about health. Michael Ableman farmer author of Farm the City To grow produce of the highest nutritional quality the essential minerals lacking in our soil from intensive agriculture must be replaced. The Intelligent Gardener is the practical step-by-step guide for any serious gardener who wants Accompanied with customizable web-based spreadsheets this toolkit calls for far more attention to detail than the simple addition of composted manure or NPK fertilizers. It conclusively establishes the link between healthy soil healthy food and healthy people. Vegetables fruits and grains are a major source of vital nutrients but centuries of intensive agriculture have depleted our soils to historic lows. As a result the broccoli you consume today may have less than half the vitamins and minerals that the equivalent serving would have contained a hundred years ago. This is a matter of serious concern since poor nutrition has been linked to myriad health problems including cancer heart disease obesity high blood pressure and diabetes. For optimum health we must increase the nutrient density of our foods to the levels enjoyed by previous generations. The Intelligent Gardener goes beyond organicit offers the essential tools for those who care about the quality of the produce they grow. Its hard to imagine this book not having a significant and lasting impact on the way organic farmers and gardeners grow their crops. Mark McDonald West Coast Seeds
language: English
title: The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
publisher: New Society Publishers