HEALTH IN RELATION TO THE SOIL

Chronicle (Levin), 23 May 1947, Page 7

HEALTH IN RELATION TO THE SOIL

-Press Association

Life Measured by Commercial Standards \

By Telegrrph-

WELLINGTON," May 22. A wsarmng that the health of tlie English-speaking- world would further deelihe unless there were a return to the traditional form oi farming, was given by Prbfessor Sir Stanton Hicks in an address to the medical section of the Science Congress today. Sir Stanton, a briliiant product of the Otago Medical School, is now Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at Adelaide University. The subject of his address was the relation of health to the sqjl. He said: "Progress, prosperity and security slogans are false. Only an outlook based on selfsupport and maintenance can- give us back purpose, real physical and niental health and an appreciation of those values without which human happiness is impossible. ' '. No thoughtful citizc'n could, he said, if he examined the evidence, be satisfied with the present situation when people were preoccup ed with diseases of plants, animals and men almost to the exclusion of health. There never had been such a sale for medicines. iii : secticides and the like and it was eertain that tl.e paramount cause was disease of the soil itself. There were extensive areas of rich land in U.S.A. which were today i problem in restoration following poisoning from sprays used to' keep plant crops free from disease, so far had the disease gone. Australia had a natiouwide fitness campaign, a Governmentsponsored activity, which aime at makmg youth fit by physical excercise, while on the other hand it was becoming a matter- for surprise to find anybody with their natural teeth after the age of 35 vears, the majority having lost them in their teens. "Our very attitude towards t'ood is changing," eontinued Sir Stanton. "The main considera tion being price. The war disclosed the disconeerting fact that food pattern has been so altered by commercial and urban influences in Australia and U.S.A, that it required a colossal effort to achieve any change, if only in

the interests of health and of niilitary strategy. This can. be possible only because .w.e are so largely out of touch - with the, very foundation of our vital energy, namely, the soil. " Amongst those, races which had retained their connection with the soil, eontinued the speaker, and where in particul'ar mothing was lost from .the soil owing to a closed cycle of farm operation and domestic life, the -population per square mile was as high as 1800 or three times the number carried by most improved farm land in U.S.A. "My recent visit to Japan surprised me in spite of my reading on the subject. The most unpromising soil and- most difficult terrain notwithstanding, food is produeed in two crops a year by a closed cycle of operations and a cycle of operations and a population support.ed iri a state of health and happiness which is astonish ing when the state of the ruined cities, destroyed industry and millions of displaeed persons, is taken in to consideration. Here I find, and am authoritatively supported, little evidence of malnutritio.n. Such as does exisf is less than one per eent. Could our agriculture do as much for us with even our small population? Japanese eft'orts at soil conservation alone are staggering in their obvious rejection of moneyf eost as a measure of what should be done. "We scientists," said Sir Stanton Hicks, in conclusion, "must pay more attention to the fact that even our seientific thinking is subject to influenee by the prevailing soeial outlook and insofar as we may be engaged on investigations in 'relation to human nu trition and food production which are inseparable, we should realisc that the quality of life, whefher plant or animals0s not capable of measurement bypommercial standards of w-alue; In this way we will eome to appreciate the truth of the statemefillthat a healthy soil procluces; health y plants and animals. , as these form the basis of human nutrition, healthy humans will result."