Nutritional value of crops as influenced by organic and inorganic fertilizer treatments

Abstract

Worldwide attention in agricultural and in nutritional science is diverted to the controversy concerning ‘Quality’ versus ‘Quantity’ in connection with the alternatives of ‘Organic Manuring’ or ‘Chemical Fertilizing’ in relation to nutritional values in crops and their significance to human health. Some contribution towards classification of these problems is presented by the statistically significant results of our 12 years' experiment on two soils, fen and sand, including different organic manures and chemical fertilizers, namely 1) ‘Stable Manure’, 2) ‘Biodynamic Compost’, 3) ‘Stable Manure + NPK’, and 4) ‘NPK’. The difficulties in getting enough organic manures have no bearing on the subject of these investigations. The same is true for any considerations of economics. It could be shown by the aid of tables and annotated graphs that organic farming with 1) and 2) gave rise to considerable decreases in yield of 20 to 46% on fen, and of 28 to 56% on sand, in 8 crops grown in rotation or in succession within a year (2 crops/year). The losses in yield have been calculated in relation to means of yields given by 4)=100. These losses in yield the organic farmer must bear at his own expense, unless the nutritive value of his organically grown crops would rise to such an extent that low yield would be financially compensated by a higher price for his crops. That the consumer would benefit by a higher biological value of such products of 1) and 2) is beyond question, as confirmed by the following data based on 12 years' chemical investigations. Crops (both on fen and sand) manured with 1) and 2) have in comparison with 4)=100 contents on average higher. On the other hand detrimental and/or undesired constituents in crops show — due to organic manuring with 1) and 2) — average contents diminished in Finally let me comment upon the analytical results on behalf of the consumer in a somewhat practical way. Vegetables including potatoes are generally heated, by cooking in the household and restaurants or by blanching in processing plants. Their water-soluble constituents, minerals and trace elements, are not at all affected by a careful heating as usual, but on the other hand soluble vitamins of the B-complex and Vitamin C are affected but only to a certain extent. However, all these water-soluble plants constituents are strongly diminished in the food as eaten, if the cooking or the blanching water gets lost by pouring off. No doubt, using ‘hot pot’ diets (‘right across the kitchen garden’) losses from vegetables and potatoes in minerals and trace elements are entirely eliminated and those in water-soluble vitamins are only limited to destruction by heating. Therefore it may be concluded, that solely those diets including the cooking water or steam blanched products will justify the greater expense of a product richer in nutrients. Otherwise it would be rather illusive to claim for low yielding organically grown crops of high nutritional value, when the latter is carelessly wasted by foulty preparation ((3, pages 174–182; 187), 16, 17, 18, 20).