Ridding Your Garden of Harmful Fertilizers
I began writing this about the first of the month and after doing some research was appalled by so much alarming information regarding the toxic sludge in and around our food, plants, and gardens. I know most people aren’t aware and I wasn’t really informed but I knew something wasn’t right as a kid seeing my father mixing that audacious colored Miracle Gro and spraying it on plants. They replace naturally occurring, healthy plant compounds and food with heavy metals and toxic sludge, YES, mutant sludge turning us in to toxic avengers mutating further generations for years to come. Just look at the stuff, it’s this Krypton colored turquoise beads with a color only found in a Crayola box. I get pretty irritated through this post but just wanted to give anyone a heads up out there reading this that you as conscious person who hopefully cares what they put in their bodies knows that there are many more beneficial things to amend your soil with like kelp, organic chicken manure, bat guano, crushed lobster and crab shells, egg shells, compost, wood ash, tree bark, bone and blood meal, and many others. These are all reasonably priced as well with usually little needed to give your garden the nutrients needed to create a healthy, pest free, and maximum great tasting yields for years to come.
Natural and organically grown food is so vital to our bodies and the best benefit of this is their nutritional content.
This week Heather and I have been purchasing certain organic amendments to replenish our family garden and were quickly appalled by how much Scott's Miracle Gro was so readily available. It's really quite shocking to think that most people aren’t opposed to use this in, on, and around food, children, and pets. Just yesterday our jaws dropped as we watched a man in his 70's filling his cart with jug after jug of toxic weed killer to be sprayed God knows where. He most understandably has no clue that he's more than likely contaminating his and his neighbors drinking water and filling his lungs with cancer causing chemicals. I am saddened and a bit enraged that the government allows these types of fertilizers and weed killers to be sold, bought, sprayed, and consumed anywhere near our homes, farms, schools, parks, etc.
Artificially induced element(s) can bond to our naturally occurring and cause all kinds of strange and adverse effects like blue baby syndrome which occurs from Ammonium Nitrate with Ammonia as its base, is an extremely toxic carcinogen to humans. That's why when you see it at a garden center it is in a thick plastic bag to seal contaminants out and gases in. 5,000 lbs were used in the Oklahoma City bombing due to highly volatile interaction with iron, copper, zinc, solvents, oil, heat and grease. It was also used widely during the world wars for munitions and explosives. (Usry, 2012). Retrieved from https://www.southlandorganics.com/blogs/news/17982096-health-effects-of-synthetic-fertilizer
So, say you're out purchasing fertilizer, potting soil, manure you'll usually see three numbers on the bag like so 25-15-10. These three numbers represent the first being Nitrogen, then, Phosphorus, and finally Potassium. They're all essential to your plants growth along with water, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, etc. The three numbers are the percentages of each element making up the inside of the bag. Add all three together and you have 50%. So, what makes up the other 50% of the bag? Companies aren't required to tell you, THE CONSUMER! From what I've read there can be beneficial things like coconut husks, perlite, corn cob, but it can also be filled with grit, sludge, and waste. This may be hard to swallow or unbelievable but in a five year period 270 million pounds of toxic waste was sent to fertilizer companies and farms according to reports from 44 states. Regulations are extremely strict if industry wants to dispose of toxic waste in lined landfills but is very lax if they wish to transfer or resale it. The simplest way to rid themselves of waste is to resell it to the consumers to spread on our farms, yards, parks, and food crops. THANKS REGULATORY BOARDS SUCH AS EPA AND FDA! We have been supplementing our diet with questionable tactics, hidden and misleading information.
This really is just the tip of the iceberg and don't have the time or patience to delve further, I just get very irritated. Let's be the catalysts to change this behavior and speak up on our behalf, our brothers and sisters, children, grandparents, and future generations. We're constantly being poisoned in our foods, air, houses, most places without even knowing it. There are many positive things to get excited about like a great meal, visiting family, going to gardens and museums, sharing a smile, and being a light to others. Just get outside as much as possible, eat clean foods, read labels, don't eat anything you can't pronounce, exercise, and inform people without being pushy or ignorant.
Signing off for now,
Travis