For more than 25 years, we have been working together with commercial farms at Toride city in Ibaragi prefecture that produce herbs and fresh vegetables to be eaten raw in the challenge to produce safe and healthy agricultural crops that are also environmentally friendly from a scientific perspective, and arrived at the conclusion to use “nitrate-nitrogen.” We found that fertilizing a well-conditioned soil with elements such as appropriate amount of nitrogen and producing healthy vegetables is an important key to conduct an agricultural production activity that has a smaller impact on the environment and is also sustainable.

“Plants growing healthily” means that plants perform photosynthesis by acquiring light energy from the sun, take root in rich humic soil that has good microbial activity, and while absorbing various nutritive substances according on their stage of development, various kinds of metabolic systems, led by protein synthesis due to nitrogen assimilation progress within the plants maintaining a physiological harmony, and grow. Conventional plants absorb nitrogen from soil as nitrate-nitrogen, the absorbed nutrients are incorporated into the metabolic system without waste under a smooth protein synthesis, and excess soluble components, that pathogenic bacteria and parasites such as insect pests favor and need, decrease within the leaves. Of course, the concentration of nitrate within the leaves of common leaf vegetables is also low, the sugar content becomes high, vitamins and functional components are also contained plentifully and their palatability improves. The shelf lives of such healthy vegetables improve. They become so-called high-quality agricultural crops.

However, if more than the required amounts of fertilizers such as nitrogen are applied, protein synthesis within the plant does not proceed smoothly, soluble components such as excess nitric acid, amino acid or sugar stagnate within the metabolic system, also the nutrient elements become unbalanced and affects the absorption of trace elements, too. Plants that contain a high quantity of such soluble components become oases for parasites such as insect pests and pathogenic bacteria. Outbreaks of various diseases occur in agricultural crops such as vegetables, insect damages also occur due to pests, and farmers are forced to spray pesticides.

Such agricultural crops which had their metabolic system disrupted due to protein synthesis not proceeding smoothly have unbalanced nutrient elements and high nitric acid concentration, and although they look lush and splendid, actually they are unhealthy crops. They have poor flavor, many of them lack the necessary ingredients, and their cooking and processing properties in making pickles and boiled food also become poor. Their shelf lives are also affected.

Through cultivation experiments using tendergreen mustard spinach (Komatsuna) and Japanese mustard (Mizuna), it was found that pesticide spraying resulted in making the concentration of nitric acid within the vegetables as much as 1.5 - 1.8 times higher. We speculated that the metabolic system of nitrogen assimilation was affected, and protein synthesis did not proceed smoothly.

Nitrates that are ingested through vegetables become reduced into nitrous acid inside the mouth, nitrite salt inside the stomach gets quickly absorbed, and when it is transferred into the bloodstream it oxidizes the hemoglobin and turns them to methemoglobin, which causes methemoglobinemia in large quantities. During the 1940’s, over 2,000 infants in western countries who ate retort-type baby food were affected (blue baby syndrome). No cases of expression have been reported in recent years. Also, if dialkyl amine exists within the stomach, it produces N-nitroso compounds under the acidic condition. These N-nitroso compounds are not only highly carcinogenic, but they also affect the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans of the pancreas, and it has been shown in animal experiments such as those using rats that they inhibit the insulin secretion and are involved in the elevation of blood sugar level. Although expressions of diseases such as cancer in people who have consumed agricultural crops with high level of nitric acid are evident, it should be acknowledged as an alarm.

Next, I would like to think about the meaning of healthy agricultural crops and organic agriculture.

Production of agricultural crops passed through a long era of mass production and mass consumption which depended on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, encountered the crises of environmental destruction and ecosystem maintenance, changed its direction toward agriculture of environmental conservation type, and has moved toward reduction of pesticides and chemical fertilizer, and the promotion of organic agriculture. In January 2000, the Organic JAS (Japan Agricultural Standards) was established, and the following conditions have been stipulated in the cultivation of organic JAS agricultural crops: (1) The agricultural field shall have no pesticides used for at least 3 years; (2) No pesticides shall be used; (3) No chemical fertilizers shall be used; (4) If fertilizers are used, they shall be organic fertilizers only.

However, I must point out that there are three major errors in the Organic JAS. The first one is that the use of completely ripened compost is not clearly specified. When organic compost is used for fertilization, not too many people perform the prior analysis of essential macronutrients and essential micronutrients for the soil and compost to fertilize accurately with a fertilization plan. Also, the effect of fertilizers is slow because it is not completely ripened, and it results in sloppy over-fertilization. The second point is that various organic materials used as raw material of organic fertilizers, such as leftover food, livestock waste, grasses/pruned branches, etc. have different contents of nutrient components respectively, and the components become unbalanced. It is extremely difficult to adjust the necessary nutrient components only with organic fertilizers, and it becomes inevitable to add chemical fertilizers for adjustment. The third point is that in agricultural crops produced by organic cultivation, the avoidance of ill effects on health by pathogenic bacteria, especially those that cause food-poisoning in humans, and by roundworms and pinworms, have not been ensured; that is to say, safety is not guaranteed at all. In December 2006, “The law regarding the promotion of organic agriculture” was established, and I cannot help but become concerned that such mistaken organic agriculture is spreading more than ever.

The current situation is that in most organic agriculture, premature compost that has a large quantity of ammonia with harmful bacteria and weed seeds still alive, and what can be called sewage is applied as organic fertilizer in the field. A lot of insect pests are attracted to the field by the odor. That is to say, decomposition by anaerobic microbe metabolism is occurring in soil that has been fertilized with such premature compost that has a low decomposition rate. Gases from the decomposition produce indole and skatole which are the odor components of feces, as well as ammonia and butyric acid, attracts various insect pests such as click beetles, houseflies, delia platuras, potato beetles, and promotes egg laying. Bacteria that are pathogenic to plants and humans also remain in such premature compost. The basic of organic agriculture is completely matured compost, and it is important to plan the fertilizers that match the intended crops by analyzing the chemical component of compost and soil, and to build a “well-conditioned arable soil.” What we would like to see is safety/security in the cultivation of crops through the reduction of pesticides and chemical fertilizers that are based on conventional cultivation, and production of agricultural crops by Organic JAS which ensures that the data has scientific rationale.

The current Japanese agricultural production does not think about building a well-conditioned soil with good microbial activity as the primary concern, and people sterilize the soil and leans toward over-fertilization; thus it can be said a variety of good-looking but unhealthy crops are being produced. Since the soil is not well-conditioned, it becomes infested with insect pest and pathogenic bacteria, and the agricultural coachers recommend spraying of pesticides according to the spray calendar without realizing that it is a vicious cycle where they are forced to depend on pesticide spraying. As a result, they end up producing unhealthy agricultural crops. Most consumers consider the crops to be safe when there is a proof that pesticides are not detected, but we must recognize again the importance of consuming healthy crops that grew in well-conditioned soil to ensure the health of people and animals.

A group of producers in Ibaragi prefecture who recognized the current situation of such agricultural production developed a voluntary standard called “Production Basis for High Quality Agricultural Products in Ibaragi Prefecture.” We consider this standard to be at the world’s highest level which exceeds Euro-GAP and Japan-GAP. Nowadays, a global standard on “sustainable manufacturing” called “Cradle to Cradle” which William McDonough, an American architect, and Michael Braungart, a German chemist, played a central role to establish, has been attracting attention. The two of them began collaborating on an activity to establish a global standard of not only the production of industrial products, but also of agricultural crops.

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