1. Healthy plants resist insects and disease
Animals and people have immune systems for defense against pathogens and physical stressors. The same concept is true of plants. When nutrition is poorly balanced, immunity is compromised, but when optimized, plants can attain immune resistance against insects and disease.
2. Mineral nutrition supports plant immunity
To enhance immunity, plants create higher-order compounds through multiple enzyme systems, many of which require trace minerals to function. Without these mineral cofactors, enzyme pathways collapse and incomplete metabolites accumulate, creating a food source for pests that leads to infestation and reduced plant health.
3. Microbial metabolites are a more efficient source of nutrition
Plants absorb nutrients most efficiently as microbial metabolites. A complex community of soil micro-organisms serves as the plant digestive system, breaking down organic residues and root exudates. Minerals extracted from the soil matrix are then released in bioavailable form allowing plants to utilize them more efficiently than simple ions from fertilizer in solution.
4. Quality drives yield
Regenerative agriculture begins by improving plant health. As plant nutrition improves, energy and immunity of crops increase, creating higher yields, better shelf life, flavor, and reduced dependence on pesticides. As quality increases, yield can’t be stopped from following.
5. Healthy plants create health soil
While healthy soils can create healthy plants, the reverse is also true. Healthy plants send much of the photosynthate they produce into the soil as root exudates. In turn, this fuels soil microbial metabolism which releases carbon from photosynthate back into the soil environment, efficiently building soil organic matter.
