Product Description

Mineral levels in meat and milk plummet over 60 years and "We Want Real Food" explains why and how it can be reversed. We are all being encouraged to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and many of us regularly spend more on organic produce in the belief that is better for our health and taste buds. However Graham Harvey illustrates how our increasingly industrial farming techniques are denuding our soil of the essential nutrients, minerals and structures needed to produce quality produce. Everyday fruits and vegetables have significantly lower nutrient contents from those grown 30 years ago, and are set to diminish further unless action is taken now. Harvey argues that many of the illnesses that plague modern society from obesity, tooth decay, arthritis and cancer to social disorder caused by increasing numbers with Attention Deficit Disorder have their roots in our diet that is low in the essential nutrients and minerals that our bodies have evolved to need. Far from the solution being too complex Harvey shows how the integration of small amounts of ground rock can re-mineralize the soil. This process mimics the action of the glaciers that provided us with the fertile soils we have been exploiting since the end of the last ice age. With the re-introduction of these essential minerals soil fertility is drastically improved producing bumper crops with a substantially improved flavour. This is an important book that is the next stage in the debate about the food we eat and how a simple solution can improve the nation's health and environment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43220 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Slightly naff title but a superb exposé of the poor quality of our food!
I would offer this as being pretty much a required book for anyone at all interested in the quality of the food that they are feeding themselves and their children.

Harvey's book is both well written and (it seems to me at least) very well researched. In essence, he offers evidence that modern industrial farming techniques are robbing foodstuffs of a high proportion of important nutrients - minerals, fatty acids and others. He links this in with the rise in rates of so-called diseases of affluence, which has been done to an extent by others, but goes further to suggest that illnesses such as dementia and behavioural difficulties may in no small way be linked to a deficient diet.

Harvey examines the ways in which nutritional balance could be returned to foods and how the production of even "organic" foods has been grossly compromised by the application of industrial farming techniques and a stretching of the definition of "organic."

Harvey provides plenty of reference to research in his text, but also includes considerable anecdotal evidence: if I have a criticism of the work it is that sometimes it is difficult to see where the hard science ends and the anecdote begins, but in general he does a good job in separating fact from speculation.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in farming, food production and, indeed, what they are putting into their mouths.

Finally: all of the pieces of the puzzle
This is a book whose time has come! Nothing else in the UK comes close at the moment to explaining the full extent of the problem of food with inadequate nutrition. Consumers are affected, even if they do seek out whole foods, by the lack of minerals and other nutrients stemming from deficient soil. Producers are squeezed by the relentless drive to produce food at the cheapest possible price without concern for quality or sustainable farming. How wonderful also to find that the author references the work of Weston A Price and the Weston A Price Foundation whose findings present the only truly sustainable path back to robust good health for citizens and economic prosperity for rural farming communities. Outstanding health does not come from chemical vitamins, low fat slimming plans or even vegetarianism. Rich full fat dairy products, especially golden yellow butter, from cattle on pastures for most of their lives, high quality meat for those who chose to eat it, again from pastured animals, and organic grains, vegetables and fruits bursting with nutrients are the cornerstones of vitality and longevity. These foods will not keep for years on a supermarket shelf and cannot be produced at the lowest possible cost: they require thoughtful farming with great attention to the health of the livestock and the productivity of the soil in future generations.

It is possible to find supremely health foods with persistence and ingenuity, although it is difficult for those with time or budgetary constraints. It is my fervent hope that this book may create a groundswell of consumer demand for truly healthy nutrient dense foods produced with care. I am encouraged that we seem to be moving in the right direction: the Jamie Oliver campaign to improve the quality of school dinners, recognition of the dangers of hydrogenated fats by leading food companies and the Food Standards Agency, increasing sales of whole foods in supermarkets. We still have a long way to go however. This book will hopefully take things up to the next level.

Essential, gripping reading
If you read nothing else this year, read this book. It will open your eyes to the staggering effects on our health of the foods that we all consume. It is very well researched, and draws in many of the author's personal experiences of farming and food of the forties, fifties and sixties. Although anecdotal, these are strongly relevant and will be identified with by anyone who has lived in those decades or earlier. If you were born since those times, it is even more important that you see what Graham Harvey is showing us, because our lives, literally, depend on it.